486 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



derived from this species, and have been developed 

 by man's selection during a long series of years : he 

 also seems to think that the wild birds when kept in 

 a state of partial domestication vary in several 

 respects after two or three generations ; in proof of 

 which he quotes a paper by Mr. Hewitt, in the 

 ' Journal of Horticulture,' to the following effect, 

 that after the third generation his birds lost their 

 elegant carriage and began to acquire the gait of the 

 common Duck ; they increased in size in each 

 generation and their legs became less fine; the white 

 collar round the neck of the Mallard became broader 

 and less regular, and some of the larger primary 

 wing-feathers became more or less white. If this 

 was always the case all our common and parti- 

 coloured tame Ducks may easily be accounted for ; 

 but I have not found this to be so, as Wild Ducks 

 have been kept in the pond here by my father and 

 myself for certainly more than forty years, and no 

 variation has taken place, nor has it ever been 

 necessary to weed pied or parti-coloured birds : the 

 only variation I have ever been able to observe is 

 that the old Mallards lose the dark vinous colour on 

 the breast, that part becoming tjie same as the rest 

 of the under parts ; but then I have shot a perfectly 

 wild Mallard in exactly the same state, so that 

 change is probably usual and only owing to age. 

 I should say that these Ducks are not pinioned, and 

 can hardly be said to be in confinement, as they fly 



