124 THE MALLARD. 



The Canada Goose spends the winter in large flocks, in 

 the middle and more southern portions of our continent. 

 A variety of this same species, called Hutchin's Goose, is 

 sparingly found to the eastward, and is very abundant in the 

 northwest. Mr. Fortiscue thinks there are not less than 

 four closely-allied species of this kind of goose at Hudson's 

 Bay. 



THE MALLARD. 



March 17th, on a bright sunny morning after a light fall of 

 snow, I wandered along Oak Orchard Creek a purling 

 stream some three or four rods in width and found the 

 Mallard (Anas boschas), and the Dusky or Black Duck (Anas 

 obscura)) in considerable numbers. The former a bird of 

 the stream and lake rather than of the sea is found very 

 sparingly in New England and immediately to the north- 

 ward, but plentifully from New York southward, especially 

 in Florida, in winter; and it is abundant in the far north- 

 west in summer. As it moves smoothly and gracefully 

 along the quiet stream, or rises in flight, or more especially 

 as it almost hovers overhead in the presence of danger, it is 

 a truly beautiful object. The rich glossy-green of the neck 

 of the male, his yellow bill and legs, the rich vinous-brown 

 of his breast, and the gray of his under parts, the pure white 

 tail of gracefully-pointed feathers, ornamented by the 

 recurved upper tail coverts of glossy-green or purple, are 

 simply resplendent in the bright morning sun, so intensified 

 by the reflection from the pure sparkling sheet of snow. 

 As he is brought down, so that one can examine the deep 

 black of the lower back, the delicately-penciled gray of his 

 shoulders, scapulars and tertiaries, all set off by his dark 

 wing with its beauty spot of green or violet margined with 

 black and white, one concludes that his brilliancy is scarcely 

 surpassed by anything on our waters. He seems by con- 



