THE SHOVELER. 



153 



ducks, acquires that strange assimilation of plumage 

 to the sombre garb of the duck, at the close of the 

 breeding season, so happily termed by Waterton in the 

 case of the mallard, the state of " eclipse." The cause 

 of this remarkable change of plumage is still unac- 

 counted for, and the time of its commencement, com- 

 pletion, and abandonment, varies considerably in dif- 

 ferent individuals. One male, that I examined carefully 

 through a telescope on Stanford mere, showed scarcely 

 any trace of this change coming on the 8th of June, but 

 another, seen at Thompson,* the following day, had a very 

 perceptible tinge of brown pervading the glossy green 

 feathers of the head. Several common mallards on the 

 same waters were equally variable, one or two of them 

 being apparently in perfect plumage. The following table, 



the result of the daily observation of certain pinioned 

 birds on a pond at Easton, near Norwich, was published in 

 the " Zoologist " for 1851 (p. 3116) by Mr. J. H. Gurney, 

 from notes supplied him by his gardener, Mr. Annes (a 

 very reliable authority), and though relating to fowl in 



* Though commonly so called the proper name of this locality, 

 I am informed, is Tornston. 

 w 



