112 THE COMMON PTARMIGAN OR WHITE GROUSE 



same season in Egypt and India, while in summer it ranges through- 

 out the fur countries, Greenland, Iceland, Lapland, and Siberia. 

 Most of those which fill British markets are no doubt bred in more 

 northern climes, but a considerable proportion of them are yet 

 produced in the British Islands, though not in the numbers that 



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: 



FIG. 71. THE COMMON PTARMIGAN OR WHITE GROUSE. 



used to be supplied before the draining of the great Fen country 

 and other marshy places. The wild duck, however, still flourishes 

 on the Norfolk Broads, and is not as wild as in places where it 

 lives its life without assistance from man. 



The Mallard pairs very early in the year, and the couples separate 

 from the flock in search of suitable nesting-places about the first 

 week in March. The nest is usually placed by the side of a stream 

 or lake, or in a marsh or bog, among coarse grass, reeds and rushes ; 

 but the spot selected is often very far removed from water, and 

 may be under a furze bush or at the bottom of a thick hedgerow. 

 So soon as incubation begins the mother commences to divest herself 

 of the down which grows thickly beneath the breast feathers, and 

 adds it to the nest furniture, so that the eggs are deeply embedded 

 in this heat-retaining substance, a portion of which she is always 

 careful to pull, as a coverlet, over her treasures when she quits 

 them for food. The nest generally contains from twelve to sixteen 

 eggs, of a dull greenish-white. When all the fertile eggs are hatched, 

 incubation occupying about twenty-five days, the next care of the 

 mother is to get the brood safely to the water, and so cunningly is 

 it done that even when the distance is great, few persons have 

 ever encountered the mother and offspring as they make the dan- 

 gerous journey. 



