92 



ANATID^E 



Food. The Mallard is essentially a night-feeder, 

 ' flighting,' as the gunner terms it, at dusk to its feeding- 

 grounds. Those birds which frequent the tidal waters by day 

 part company at night with Wigeon and other sea-ducks, 

 which remain to feed on the coast. Potato-fields, stubble, 

 bogs, ditches, the shores of fresh-water lakes, are all fre- 

 quented by the Mallard, and the corn-fields are greedily 

 attacked in the harvest season. 



FIG. 14. MALLARD. 



Flight. The Mallard is strong and swift on the wing ; 

 when flying inland to its feeding-grounds, it travels at 

 a rapid rate generally "at no great height from the ground. 

 The clear highly-pitched whistle produced by the vibrations 

 of the pinions, is a pleasing sound well known to sportsmen. 

 In autumn the Mallard undergoes a heavy moult 1 , shedding 

 its quills almost simultaneously ; it is then scarcely capable 

 of flight, and remains on secluded rivers or on small lakes, 



1 On August 28th, 1901, in the co. Clare, in company with the 

 Rev. S. W. King, we suddenly disturbed a Mallard out of a tuft of rushes 

 on a turf bog. With great difficulty the Duck kept on the wing for some 

 twenty yards. We marked it down, and after a short chase, succeeded 

 in capturing it. We found it moulting so freely that several of the wing 

 and tail-feathers came out while holding the bird gently in our hands. 



