HUMILIATION 249 



deem myself happy if, at the end of a few weeks, 

 out of a hatch of twelve, some three or four duck- 

 lings remained alive. It is to be hoped that here, 

 as elsewhere in Nature, there is a " survival of the 

 fittest." 



The greatest peculiarity of the wild duck 

 remains to be noticed. Towards the close of the 

 breeding season, the drake, who has, hitherto, 

 shirked all his anxieties and responsibilities in so 

 shameful a manner, has to undergo a period of sore 

 Lenten humiliation. He doffs all the bravery of 

 his green and white and chocolate attire ; the 

 beautiful curled feathers of his tail fall off; and 

 he dons instead the sober and sombre livery of 

 his much-enduring and neglected mate. 



Throughout the month of July, even a practised 

 eye can scarcely distinguish the drake from the 

 duck. It is a humiliation shared by some other 

 members of the same tribe, such as the still more 

 gorgeous Carolina and Mandarin, but by no other 

 species in existence. What is the cause of this 

 strange metamorphosis, this total eclipse? We 

 cannot tell. Is it that the brilliancy of his plumage 

 would expose him, during the later moulting period 

 when he can hardly fly, to unusual dangers? Or, 

 is it that Dame Nature, indignant at his selfishness 



