PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 191 



in the sand, sometimes a rabbit burrow, and at other times excavated by the bird. 

 The distance from the mouth of the hole varies considerably, some nests being as 

 much as 10 or 12 feet from the entrance, while others are only a few feet. (PL LXVI.) 

 On the Frisian islands artificial holes are freely used to breed in, and it may be said 

 to exist in a partially domesticated state. Other sites occasionally made use of 

 are holes in stone embankments or in the face of a cliff, hollows beneath loose 

 boulders, and in thick gorse bushes. The nest itself is a big bed of down, pale 

 brownish or pearly grey in colour, and large white feathers, barred at the tip 

 with chesnut or dark brown (PL U), 1 mixed with dead grasses, moss, leaves, etc., 

 and is formed by the female, though probably both sexes take part in excavation 

 (O. Lee), but this is denied by Naumann. The smooth creamy white eggs are 

 generally from 7 or 8 to 12 in number, but instances of 13 to 17 eggs in one nest 

 are on record, and in Norway 20 and 28 have been found in one nest, obviously 

 the produce of more than one female, as was undoubtedly also the nest with 32 

 eggs recorded by W. Gyngell (Naturalist, 1902, p. 161). Average size of 93 

 eggs, 2-57 x 1-84 in. [65-5 x 46-9 mm.]. (PL S.) The incubation period is given by 

 Saunders as 28 to 30 days, but Oswin Lee estimates it as 24 to 26 days. It is 

 apparently performed by the duck alone, but according to some writers she is 

 relieved for a short time in the early morning and evening by her mate. This is 

 probably an error of observation, as the drake calls her off and accompanies her 

 on her return to the nest. Full clutches may be met with from about the first 

 week of May onward, usually about the middle of the month, occasionally as 

 early as the end of April, and in the north often not till early in June. Only 

 one brood is reared in a season, though a second clutch may be laid if the first 

 is taken. [F. c. R. j.] 



5. Food. Sandhoppers and other small Crustacea, molluscs, marine worms, 

 and sea-weed. The young partake of the same food, and are assisted in its capture 

 by the female, [w. p. p.] 



MALLARD OR WILD -DUCK [Anas platyrhtfncha Linnaeus; Anas 

 boscas, Linnaeus. Stock - duck (Orkneys). French, canard sauvage ; 

 German, Marz-Ente, Stock-Ente ; Italian, germano real]. 



I. Description. The mallard may be distinguished at all ages by the 

 coloration of the coverts and secondaries forming the speculum. This, in so 



1 For illustrations of the typical feathers found in the nests of the British-breeding ducks, 

 see an article by H. Noble in British Birds, vol. ii. pp. 18 and 37, pis. 1 and 2. 



