154 RIVER AND POND DUCKS 



size. The Mallard often lays its eggs in the nests of other ducks but is 

 perhaps less addicted to this habit than many others, the Redhead for 

 example. In heavily wooded districts nests of the Mallard may be found 

 in trees sometimes as high as 25 feet from the ground. Such sites are 

 usually in the unused nests of hawks in the forks of trees and are not in 

 cavities in the trunks or branches as are those of the regular tree-nesting 

 species. 



The female incubates the eggs unassisted. This duty requires from 

 23 to 29 days, usually 26. As Bent (1923) says, "The drakes usually 

 take no interest in family cares after the eggs are laid, but gather in 

 small flocks by themselves, moult into eclipse plumage and hide among 

 the rushes in the sloughs where they spend the summer in seclusion." 

 Our imaginative artists in their pretty pictures of family groups of Mal- 

 lards, invariably depict the Mallard drake in full winter plumage, ac- 

 companying the female and their brood. This is, of course, entirely 

 wrong and very misleading; the drake at this time is skulking by himself 

 and, in his eclipse moult, is far from being an object of beauty. 



Of the mother's care of the young, Bent (1923) says: "The watchful 

 mother is ever on the alert, and at the approach of danger gives her note 

 of alarm which sends the little ones scattering in all directions to hide 

 in the underbrush or thick grass, while she diverts the attention of the 

 intruder. She is very courageous in the defense of her young; I once 

 surprised a female with her brood in a little pond hole in the timber; 

 although the young were well hidden in the surrounding grass and 

 bushes, the old bird was flapping about, within a few feet of me, splash- 

 ing and quacking loudly, frequently rising and circling about me, then 

 dropping into the pond again and showing every symptom of anxiety, 

 totally regardless of her own safety; the young were too well concealed 

 for me to find them and I left the anxious mother in peace." 



The principal feeding grounds of the Mallard are the shallow waters 

 of sloughs, ponds, lakes, and rivers of the interior but it is also particu- 

 larly partial to wheat, barley, corn, and buckwheat which it gleans from 

 the stubble fields on every opportunity. Its food is nine-tenths vegetable. 

 An examination of the stomach contents of 1,578 of these ducks, taken in 

 22 States and 2 Canadian Provinces, showed the following approximate 

 percentages: sedges, 22; grasses, 13; smartweeds, 10; pondweeds, 8; 

 duckweeds, 6; coontail, 6; wild celery and its allies, 4; water elm and 

 hackberries, 4; wapato and its allies, 4; acorns, 2; seeds of buttonbush, 2; 

 cypress cones and galls, 1; miscellaneous plant food, 9; total vegetable 

 food, 91 per cent. Insects, 3; molluscs, 6; total animal food, 9 per cent. 

 Some of the stomachs were interesting on account of the large numbers 

 of individual objects they contained. For instance, one revealed about 

 28,160 seeds of a bulrush, 8,700 of another sedge, 35,840 of primrose wil- 

 low, and about 2,560 of duckweeds as the principal items, a total of more 

 than 75,200 seeds. Another stomach contained no fewer than 102,400 

 seeds of primrose willow, which number of seeds, if sowed one foot apart 

 each way, would suffice for 2y% acres of ground. The Mallard is one of 



