934 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



FEMALE PINTAILS GETTING AWAY 



Typical Dabbling ducks with longer necks, longer wings and more slender bodies 

 than the divers. Compare with the scaup ducks. 



their feet for propulsion. They first locate their prey 

 by lowering their heads as they swim until their eyes 

 are beneath the surface film and their serrate bills, with 

 the hook-like nail at the tip, are well adapted for holding 

 the slippery fish. Very often the gulls hover over the spot 

 where the mergansers 

 are fishing and swoop 

 down on them when 

 they come up with a 

 fish. Before the poor 

 birds can get a chance 

 to juggle the fish about 

 and swallow it, they are 

 sometimes so annoyed 

 by the gulls that they 

 drop it and then the 

 gulls promptly fall up- 

 on it and begin quarrel- 

 ing among themselves. 

 Mergansers nest either 

 in holes in trees or in 

 crevices in the rocks and, like the other ducks, lay whitish, 

 unspotted eggs. 



THE DABBLING DUCKS 



All of the domestic ducks and most of the ducks that 

 are commonly known, belong to this group. Indeed all 

 of the breeds of domestic ducks from the white Pekins 

 to the Indian runners, with the exception of the muscovy, 

 are thought to be descend- 

 ed from one species, the 

 mallard or common wild 

 duck, which is a typical 

 member of this group. The 

 muscovy is a very distinct 

 species native to the West 

 Indies and northern South 

 America. The wild mal- 

 lard differs but little in 

 coloration from the domes- 

 tic breed, the males having 

 bright green heads and 

 white rings around their 

 necks and the females be- 

 ing uniformly streaked yel- 

 lowish or grayish brown. 

 Under domestication, how- 

 ever, the birds change con- 

 siderably, becoming much 

 heavier, with fatter heads 



and sagging bodies. In the wild state the mallard is 

 found all over the Northern Hemisphere, though in 

 North America, it is more abundant in the West and in 

 the Mississippi Valley than in the East. Here its 

 place is filled by the black duck or black mallard, as it 

 is sometimes called, a warier species that is better able 

 to take care of itself in more closely settled districts. 

 Male and female black ducks are alike except for their 

 bills which in the males are yellow and in the females 



The teal are the smallest of 

 the ducks. 



olive. They are uniformly brownish black except for 

 the purple patches and the snowy white lining of the 

 wings. Both the black and mallard ducks feed to a con- 

 siderable extent in the grain fields in the northern states, 

 spending the day out at sea or on the larger bodies of 



water and feeding only 

 at night. They are 

 likewise residents of 

 the marshes and it is 

 here that they are most 

 successfully hunted. 



Space permits only a 

 mention of the remain- 

 ing dabbling ducks of 

 which there are nine 

 other species found in 

 North America. The 

 best known of these are 

 the pintail, the baldpate, 

 the shoveller, the gad- 

 wall, the blue-winged 

 and green-winged Teals, and the wood duck, the last 

 being the most brilliantly colored of all. Its crested pur- 

 plish green head, variously marked with white, its pur- 

 plish chestnut breast and its buffy flanks all tend to make 

 it a striking bird much desired on ornamental ponds. The 

 males of the other species are quite beautifully marked 

 in their breeding plumages with whites, browns, blues, 

 and metallic colors but the. females are uniformly plain. 

 The fall plumage of the male birds which is 

 donned in late summer and worn for only a short 

 time while the flight feathers are being replaced, 

 resembles that of the fe- 

 males which is the same 

 throughout the year. This 

 early fall plumage of the 

 males, which is never worn 

 all winter as with most 

 birds, is called the "eclipse" 

 plumage. It serves to make 

 the birds less conspicuous 

 while they are replacing 

 their flight feathers and are 

 there fore comparatively 

 helpless, for unlike most 

 birds the ducks shed all 

 these feathers simultan- 

 eously and are without the 

 power of flight for four or 

 five weeks until the new 

 ones are grown. 



With the exception of 

 the wood duck, all the dab- 

 bling ducks regularly nest 

 on the ground, usually near 

 water but sometimes a half a mile from it and in quite 

 exposed situations. The nests are crude affairs of grasses 

 and weeds but as incubation proceeds, the female plucks 

 down from her breast with which she covers the eggs to 



FEMALE GREEN WINGED 

 TEAL 



The bright colors are restricted to 

 the male ducks. 



