340 THE MALLARD. 



and when a person approaches the nest, they are very fear- 

 less, hovering around and about him, and uttering shrill 

 and piercing cries. Ilence their Swedish designation. 



The young of this bird are readily reared and domes- 

 ticated; but they require peculiar food and treatment. 

 I once had two pairs, taken by myself in a distant part of 

 the Wenern, which throve well until the setting in of tin- 

 winter, when a sudden frost, for which due preparations had 

 not been made, put a period to their existence. 



The Black Tern (Svart Tdrna, Svv. ; Sort Terne, Dan. ; 

 Sterna niyra, Linn.), which northern naturalists would 

 lead us to suppose is confined to the south of Sweden, 

 was an occasional visitor to our " Skiirgard. During tin- 

 summer of 1858, which was a remarkably warm one 

 indeed, it was not at all uncommon, both there and on 

 the river Gotha. In the Wenern, as elsewhere said, I 

 have also seen and shot this bird. 



The Mallard (Grds-And, or grass-duck, Sw. ; Stok- 

 And, Dan. ; Anas Boschus, Linn.) was common during 

 summer in one or other of the larger islands of the 

 " Sksirg.ird," and in the reed-beds of the Gotha, and 

 Norra-Elf, as also throughout a large portion of Scan- 

 dinavia, from the extreme south of Sweden to the Polar 

 Circle. M. Wilhclm von Wright assumes Karesuando, in 

 Swedish Lapland, as its limit to the north, but stragglers 

 have been met with still higher up. If the winter be a 

 mild one, a few of these birds winter in the rapids of tin- 

 Gotha, and others of the more southern rivers. It is 

 very common in Denmark, during the summer at least. 

 Formerly, 1 entertained the notion, that the Mallard 

 only nested in marshy places ; but such is not the ca-e, 

 for of late years F .have found it to breed in wooded 

 localities, at a considerable distance from the water. 



To jnd-v li\ what follows, it would seem as if (In- 

 habits of the Mallard in after-life are much dependent, 



