ANATIN^E. ANAS. 165 



oblong ; wings of moderate length and breadth, pointed ; 

 the second quill longest ; the first little shorter ; inner se- 

 condaries elongated, oblong, broad, rather pointed ; tail 

 short, much rounded, of eighteen or twenty acute feathers. 

 The males are larger and differently coloured. The food 

 consists of seeds and other vegetable substances, worms, in- 

 sects, reptiles, and small fishes. The nest is placed on the 

 ground, and the eggs are numerous, white, or greenish. 



245. ANAS BOSCHAS. MALLARD DUCK. 



Male with the bill greenish-yellow ; the feet orange ; the 

 head and upper part of the neck glossy deep green ; a narrow 

 white collar ; the lower part of the neck and a portion of the 

 breast dark brownish-chestnut; lower parts greyish-white, 

 very minutely undulated with grey ; fore part of the back 

 brown ; scapulars grey and brown, minutely undulated ; 

 hind part of the back black ; wings brownish-grey ; speculum 

 bluish-green and purple, margined before and behind with 

 black and white ; tail feathers twenty, brownish-grey, broad- 

 ly edged with white, the four medial recurved, reduplicate, 

 compressed, and black. Female smaller, with the bill green- 

 ish-grey ; the feathers of the upper parts dusky-brown, edged 

 with pale reddish ; the throat whitish ; the lower parts grey- 

 ish-yellow, streaked and spotted with dusky ; the speculum 

 as in the male ; the medial tail feathers straight. Young like 

 the female. 



Male, 24, 35, 11, 2 T 4 F , l|f, 2, ^. Female, 22, 33. 



This species, the original of our domestic duck, occurs in 

 variable numbers in all parts of the country, being more 

 abundant in marshy and thinly peopled districts. In winter 

 it for the most part removes from the higher grounds to the 

 hollows and level tracts, and in frosty weather betakes itself 

 to the shores of estuaries and even of the open sea. It is 

 chiefly at night that it searches for its food, which consists of 

 seeds, grasses, roots, mollusca, insects, small fishes, and small 

 reptiles. The nest is placed on the ground, in rare instances 

 on trees. The eggs, from four to ten, are greenish-white, two 

 inches and a quarter in length, an inch and nine-twelfths in 

 breadth. The young swim and dive with great activity from 

 the first. The flesh being in great request, vast numbers are 

 caught in decoys, and more shot. It being more numerous 

 in winter than in summer, there is probably an autumnal 



