THE MALLARD. 73 



remote period ; and it is also known to have been among 

 the Chinese, who rear and cultivate them to a very great 

 extent. Indeed, it is, I think, in the highest degree 

 probable that the duck, in its domestic state, is an 

 importation into Europe from the East, where, as I 

 believe in every quarter of the globe, the Mallard is a 

 common and indigenous native of the fresh waters. 



The Mallard, or Wild Drake, commonly known in the 

 Eastern States as the Green-head, westward as the Gray 

 Duck, and in Alabama as the English Duck, weighs 

 from thirty-six to forty ounces, and measures' twenty- 

 three inches in length, by thirty-five in breadth. 



The bill is of a yellowish-green color, not very flat, 

 about an inch broad, and two and a half long from the 

 corners of the mouth to the tip of the nail ; the head and 

 upper half of the neck are of a deep, glossy, changeable 

 green, terminated in the middle of the neck by a white 

 collar, with which it is nearly encircled ; the lower parts 

 of the neck, breast and shoulders are of a deep, vinous 

 chestnut ; the covering scapular feathers are of a kind of 

 silvery white, those underneath rufons ? and both are 

 prettily crossed with small, waved threads of brown. 

 Wing coverts ash, quills brown, and between these 

 intervenes the speculum, or beauty-spot, common in the 

 duck tribe, which crosses the wing in a transverse, 

 oblique direction. It is of a rich, glossy purple, with 

 violet or green reflections, and bordered by a double 

 streak of sooty black and pure white. The belly is of a 



