The Ruddy Sheld-Duck 



The general colour is a deep orange brown, the head 

 being rather lighter. The male has a narrow black collar 

 during the nesting season. The female is much paler on 

 the head, the forehead, lores, and a ring round the eye being 

 nearly white. Length 25 in.; wing 14 '5 in. 



THE MALLARD OR WILD DUCK 



Anas boschas, Linnaeus 



This is at once our commonest and most beautiful Duck. 

 Owing to drainage of fen-lands and higher cultivation it is, 

 perhaps, not so abundant as formerly, yet there are few 

 marshes or low-lying lands of any extent in our islands, 

 which do not afford a home to a few pairs of this species. 



It feeds chiefly by night on worms, aquatic insects, 

 water weeds, and grain, and prefers ditches overgrown with 

 weeds or shallow ponds to open stretches of deep water. 

 Early in March it chooses a nesting site, usually on the 

 ground and at no great distance from water, but exceptionally 

 it has been known to nest in trees, faggots, stacks, and 

 other elevated places. No nest is formed, but a cup-shaped 

 hollow is scraped out, which is warmly lined with down 

 after incubation commences. The eggs, usually ten to 

 twelve in number, are pale greenish yellow, and are always 

 carefully covered up by the Duck on leaving the nest. 

 They hatch after twenty-seven days' incubation, and the 

 young are then taken to the nearest water, on or near which 

 they remain for about two months till they can fly. If, 



241 3i 



