WILD DUCK. 273 



to charm the eye of man. This description of the change 

 of plumage in the Mallard has been penned down with 

 great care. I enclosed two male birds in a coop, from the 

 middle of May to the middle of October, and saw them 

 every day during the whole of their captivity. Perhaps 

 the moulting in other individuals may vary a trifle with 

 regard to time. Thus we may say, that once every year, 

 for a very short period, the Drake goes, as it were, into an 

 eclipse, so that, from the early part of the month of July 

 to about the first week in August, neither in the poultry- 

 yards of civilized man, nor through the vast expanse of 

 Nature's wildest range, can there be found a Drake in 

 that plumage which, at all other seasons of the year, is so 

 remarkably splendid and diversified." 



The Wild Duck may be called resident in Ireland, from 

 its breeding there, and some being to be met with at all 

 seasons. The same may be said of it in England and in 

 Scotland. Richard Dann, Esq., in his notes to me on this 

 species, says, " The Wild Duck is common over the whole 

 of Norway and Sweden, but is found only as a straggler, or 

 in very small numbers, within the Arctic Circle. I have 

 seen them at Quickiock, and at Juckasiervi, but there they 

 are rare. Their great breeding-places are the numerous 

 shallow reedy lakes at the head of the Bothnian Gulf; 

 they seem naturally to prefer the vicinity of cultivated 

 districts, and feed much on corn in August and September. 

 They are also found in the mountainous parts of Norway, 

 and breed as high as the birch tree goes. The young and 

 females migrate south first, the old males remaining until 

 they have recovered their full plumage, and at the end of 

 September are sometimes to be seen in flocks of three or 

 four hundred together. They remain in considerable num- 

 bers among the islands on the western coast of Sweden till 

 the sea freezes." The Wild Duck is common also over 



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