168 THE WILD DUCK. 



A great enemy to ducks in the nesting time is 

 the rat ; those arrant poachers, more worthy of the 

 gamekeeper's attention than the birds of prey, which 

 are so useful in thinning their numbers, are exceed- 

 ingly destructive to the eggs of thi> : it is 

 not surprising, therefore, that their i uld be 

 so frequently found to contain nothing but empty egg 

 shells. Nor are the young birds out of danger when 

 they take to the water ; for, doubtless, many in their 

 early days fall a prey to the monster pike which are so 

 common in our waters ; it is quite possible also that 

 the eels claim their tribute. These causes are a serious 

 check upon the increase of the various water fowl, and, 

 in some cases, I believe, have proved destructive to 

 whole broods. 



The remarkable change which takes place at certain 

 periods of the year in the plumage of the males of n 

 species of duck, by which they assume for a time the 

 appearance of the females of the s, or, as Charles 



Waterton so aptly expresses it, " the drake gc^ 

 were, into an eclipse," is very observable in this spe 

 Some interesting remaks upon the subject will be found 

 ante, p. 1 



As might be expected with a species which i 

 readily domesticated, hybrids are not at all uncommon; 

 it has been recorded as breeding with more than a 

 dozen others, particulars of which have been collected 

 by Baron de Selys Longchamps ('* Bull, de 1' Acad. I 

 de Belgique," 1845, 1856), and Mons. Suchetet - 1 

 sur les by brides des Anatides." Eouen, 1888). 



Varieties of this species are not unfrequently met 

 with ; albinos are said to be very rare indeed, and I am 

 not aware of such an occurrence in this county, but in 

 some loose notes by the late Mr. Robert "Rising, of 

 Horsey, now, I believe, in the possession of Mr. Coli. 

 he mentions two cream-coloured mallards killed at Hor- 

 sey on 2nd September^ 1853. Mr. Lubbock, in an inter- 

 leaved copy of Bewick, mentions that a black variety, " a 

 genuine wild birfr," was taken in 1857 by his friend, Mr. 

 Kerrison, in the decoy at Ranworth, " coal-black, with 

 bottle-green reflections on the head and neck." In 

 February, 1838, Mr. J. H. Guroey procured a variety of 



