and any one who has sat out to shoot wild-fowl in such places will have heard 

 them guzzling in the mud all round him. 



The Mallard is a very early breeder, and eggs may be found as early as the 

 last week in March. The nest is seldom very close to the water, but is usually 

 placed some way from it, on a dry bank among heather, rushes, or bracken. 

 Sometimes it is placed in the edge of a wood among the undergrowth, or under a 

 bush. More rarely it is found in a dead stump, or even in some disused nest 

 in a tree ! I have seen a nest of this species in the large hollow of a beech-tree 

 eight feet from the ground ; this bird nested regularly in the same situation 

 year after year. The nest is usually a deepish hollow in the ground, carefully 

 concealed among the long grass, heather, or brushwood, and copiously lined 

 with moss, dry grass, and leaves. After the duck begins to sit, she plucks 

 the down from her breast and sides, and adds it to the lining of the nest. By 

 the time that the full complement of eggs is laid, the mass of down keeps the 

 eggs quite warm while she leaves the nest to feed, and also serves as a 

 covering to hide the eggs from the crows. 



From seven to twelve eggs are laid, sometimes as many as fourteen, nine 

 or ten being an average clutch. They are of a greenish buff colour, and 

 vary in length from 2*45 to 2*15 inches, and in breadth from 171 to 1^49 

 inch. They are not very likely to be confused with those of any of our 

 British-breeding ducks, as the down in the nest is always a sure identification. 

 It is a neutral grey colour, faintly tinged with brown, slightly paler in the 

 centre of the flakes, and faintly tipped with white. 



Young in down are dark brown on the upper parts, with very pale buff 

 spots on the scapulars, wings, and sides of the rump. They are pale brown 

 on the under parts, shading into a lighter brown on the belly, and into pale 

 buff on the throat. A dark brown stripe runs through the eye, a pale yellowish 

 buff stripe over it, and the ear coverts are tipped with dark spots. 



The Mallard leads her young to the nearest water as soon as they are 

 hatched, and it is a very pretty sight to see an old duck swimming about 

 with a long string of little ducklings following behind. Like the Eider, the 

 Mallard will take her young on her back when they are tired, and swim with 

 them to a place of safety. In lakes where large pike abound great numbers 

 of young ducks, as well as the young of other water-fowl, are seized by these 

 voracious fish. On St. Mary's Loch in Selkirkshire I killed a fine pike of 

 nine pounds whose stomach contained a trout of three-quarters of a pound and 

 two young Mallards, partially digested. 



80 



