220 MALLARDS AND PINTAILS. 



beauty is proud and haughty, carries his head aloft, 

 and through his bearing imparts to his variegated 

 plumage an attraction that .the farmyard waddler 

 never possesses. 



In their wild state migratory, the mallard and 

 the pintails are almost the first to proclaim to the 

 observer the advent of spring and the approach of 

 winter. In America they breed on the margins of 

 the numerous northern lakes that are beyond the 

 route of traders or sportsmen, where they are free 

 from all intrusion, the drake leaving to his mate all 

 the responsibility and onus entailed by the rearing of 

 a family. In their nests, which are rough and slovenly, 

 the number of eggs sometimes amounts to twelve or 

 fourteen. Immediately the young break the shell 

 they are are able to paddle about, but do not 

 obtain the powers of flight till almost of mature 

 growth. It is unnecessary to describe their ap- 

 pearance, for what schoolboy cannot remember in 

 some familiar barn-yard a green-headed drake, and 

 a sombre-plumaged duck, which are in colour the 

 counterparts of their wild relatives ? The sportsman 

 also is familiar with these birds, few other species 

 having so often swelled the capacious maw of his 

 game-bag ; for, although wary, they are numerous, 

 and not difficult to decoy or stalk if, not forgetting 

 the importance of silence, due attention be paid to 

 wind and cover. The mallards during the day, 

 unless in stormy weather, remain at rest, either 

 floating upon the surface of the water, or on the 



