DUCKS 319 



the Danube, southern Germany, and Switzerland up to the Arctic Circle and 

 includes Britain. The wild duck ranges across Asia, and has been found nesting in 

 Kashmir; while in winter it migrates to India and China. In America it is found as 

 a nesting-bird or a winter migrant from the Arctic Circle. Ducks are acute of hear- 

 ing, although they do not see very well, and are difficult of approach. There is a 

 good deal of discomfort and disappointment in wild-fowling, whether practised from 

 the shore or from a barrel sunk in a marsh or other ambush, or from a punt titted with 

 a gun of large calibre with which the destruction is wholesale on the rare occasions 

 when the object is hit. For market-purposes wild ducks are caught in large nets, 

 or in " decoys," which are long tunnels of nets tapering into a trap, such as that at 

 Fritton in Suffolk, which is two and a half miles long and covers two hundred acres. 

 The mallard, which is the progenitor of European domesticated ducks, is 

 distinguished by the colour of the bright bar on its wing ; and many of the other 

 ducks can be recognised in a similar way. For instance, the wing-bar of the 

 mallard is purple, that of the gachvall white, that of the shoveller green, that of 

 the pintail green bordered with red in front and white behind, that of the garganey 

 green with white borders, and that of the teal black, green, and purple, tipped 

 with white. As the bird can be identified by its wing-bar, so is the nest known 

 by the down with which it is lined. The down of the mallard is light brown with 

 white tips, that of the gadwall light brown with a white star, that of the shoveller 

 dark grey with faint white tips, that of the pintail dark brown with white tips 

 and a white star, that of the garganey black with long thin white tips and a 

 white star, and that of the teal dark brown with brown tips and a white star. 



Although nowhere very common, the gadwall (Chaulelasmus 

 GadwaU. . . a \ 



streperus) is widely distributed throughout Europe, Asia, and North 

 America below the Arctic Circle ; its winter-resorts being the Nile Valley, India, 

 China, Cuba, and Mexico. It lays from six to twelve greenish eggs, in a ground-nest 

 made of grass, leaves, and rushes, always near fresh water, as the gadwall is rarely 

 seen by the seashore or on an estuary, and is not conspicuous anywhere owing to 

 its retiring habits. When flying, it may be recognised by the whistling of its wings, 

 the strokes of which are singularly rapid and powerful. It feeds on leaves and 

 seeds, in some districts on rice, but varies this diet with worms, insects, and frogs. 

 The shoveller (Spatula clypeata) ranges all round the temperate 



zone, migrating as far south as Borneo and Panama. Everywhere 

 it keeps aloof from other ducks, but is almost indifferent to the presence of man, by 

 whom it is not much molested owing to the coarseness of its feeding-habits, though 

 its flesh is of good flavour. It has a rapid, noisy flight, and alights on the water 

 with a considerable splash. Its call is a deep - toned took - took in the pairing- 

 season, and an occasional quack at other times ; the shoveller being almost a silent 

 bird, which in a quiet business-like way feeds along the margins of the dirtiest ponds 

 intent on swallowing anything it can find. The broad tip of the lead-coloured bill 

 enables the shoveller, to whom nothing vegetable or animal comes amiss, to sift the 

 organic from the inorganic. The rather neat nest of grass is always placed on the 

 ground, in grass or heather, lined with grass and down, and contains from six to 

 nine eggs. The shoveller is distinguished not only by its beak and wing-bar but 

 by its blue wing-coverts. 



