DUCK IN GENERAL AND IN PARTICULAR 15 



tions sufficient expanse of water and freedom from 

 disturbance suited to their well-being, and there will 

 they remain throughout the year unless there come 

 frost sufficiently hard to seal all their food supplies, in 

 which case they quickly find their way to the coast, 

 where they remain till the severe weather is over. 

 Migrant mallard reach our shores in large numbers at 

 the time of the autumn flight, the majority of them 

 seeking a home on inland waters. Those which re- 

 main on the coast spend their days far out on the 

 salt water, and their nights either on the muds and 

 saltings, or else on some inland feeding-ground within 

 easy reach of the tide. The mallard, one of the very 

 best of table birds, measures about 24 inches. Where 

 little disturbed, mallard are comparatively easy to 

 approach ; but on the coast, or on water to which the 

 public have access, one finds them, on account of 

 constant persecution, among the most wary of duck. 

 Mallard will occasionally nest at a height of many 

 feet above the ground as, for instance, in the fork 

 formed by a large branch of a tree at its juncture 

 with the trunk, or on a partly-cut or loosely-thatched 

 stack and, strangely enough, the young birds seem 

 always to reach the ground in safety. There exists a 

 pure white variety of the mallard, generally known as 

 the white witch duck of the fens, which is becoming 



