DUCKS. 



345 



directs the tail backward. The male emits a rather low and soft cry between a 

 croak and a murmur, arid the female a louder and clearer jabber. Both on being 

 alarmed, and especially on flying off, quack ; but the quack of the female is much 

 the louder. When feeding, they are silent, but when satiated they often amuse 

 themselves with various jabberings, swim about, approach each other, move their 

 heads backward and forward, " duck " in the water, . throwing it up over their 

 backs, shoot along its surface, half-flying, half-running, and, in short, are quite 

 playful when in good humour. On being surprised or alarmed, whether on shore 

 or on water, they spring up at once with a bound, rise obliquely to a considerable 

 height, and fly off with speed, their hard-quilled wings whistling against the air. 

 When in full flight, their velocity is very great, being probably a hundred miles in 

 the hour. Like other ducks, they impel themselves by quickly repeated flaps, 

 without sailings or undulations." With regard to the foregoing statement as to 

 the speed of the mallard's flight, it is probable that there is considerable exaggera- 

 tion, since a recent writer records a case where a couple of wild ducks started off' at 

 full speed in front of a train which had disturbed them, and although the train was 

 running at the rate of only thirty-seven miles per hour, the birds were overtaken. 

 Like most of its kindred, the mallard usually builds its nest in a depression of the 

 ground near the margin of water, although at times some distance from the latter. 

 The nest is lined with . dry grass, leaves, or down; the smooth eggs being of a dull 

 greenish grey colour. The gadwall, however, lays creamy yellow eggs, varying 

 in number from nine to thirteen. Instances are on record of wild ducks nesting 

 in trees at considerable heights above the ground, from whence the young 

 were doubtless carried down in the same manner as those of the tree-ducks. 

 Essentially a winter migrant when breeding in high northern latitudes, the 

 mallard appears at that season in immense numbers in certain districts of the 

 British Islands as well as in the plains of India. These birds are, however, rarely 

 seen in large flocks, usually associating in parties of from three to ten, and later on 

 in pairs. In common with other water-fowl, hosts of these ducks are taken in 

 decoys or shot from punts with swivel-guns. 



The Shoveller- The enormous size and ungainly form of their flat beaks serves 



Ducks. a t once to differentiate the large ducks known as shovellers from all 

 their allies. In these birds the beak is considerably longer than the head, 

 compressed at the base, and very broad at the tip, where the upper mandible 

 overhangs the lower, behind which the lamellae are distinctly exposed. The wings 

 are pointed, with the first and second quills the longest; and the short and 

 graduated tail includes fourteen feathers. The legs are very short. As being the 

 best known representative of the genus, our illustration depicts the common 

 shoveller (Spatula clypeata), which in the British Isles is mainly a winter visitor, 

 and is spread over the entire Northern Hemisphere. In the male the head and 

 neck are dark metallic green, the breast and lower part of the neck white, the 

 abdomen and sides chestnut, the wing-speculum green with a white borde*r in 

 front, the back and inner scapulars dusky brown, and the outer scapulars white ; 

 the beak being lead colour, and the legs and feet reddish orange, with black nails. 

 The female lacks the brilliant coloration of her lord, having most of the feathers 

 mottled with two shades of brown, the back and scapulars being nearly uniform 



