BRITISH BIRDS. 289 



closed wing in a transverse oblique direction : it is 

 of a rich glossy purple, with violet or green reflec- 

 tions, and bordered by a double streak of black and 

 white. The belly is of a pale grey, delicately 

 pencilled and crossed with numberless narrow 

 waved dusky lines, which, on the sides and long 

 feathers that reach over the thighs, are more 

 strongly and distinctly marked : the upper and 

 under tail coverts, lower part of the back, and the 

 rump, are black : the latter glossed with green : the 

 four middle tail feathers are also black, with purple 

 reflections, and, like those of the Domestic Drake, 

 are stiffly curled upwards ; the rest are sharp- 

 pointed, and fade off to the exterior sides, from a 

 brown to a dull white: legs, toes, and webs red. 



The plumage of the female is very different from 

 that of the male, and partakes of none of his beau- 

 ties except the spot on the w r ings. All the other 

 parts are plain brown, marked with black. She 

 makes her nest, lays from ten to sixteen greenish 

 white eggs, and rears her young, generally in the 

 most sequestered mosses or bogs, Tar from the haunts 

 of man, and hidden from his sight among reeds and 

 rushes. To her young helpless unfledged family 

 (and they are nearly three months before they can 

 fly) she is a fond, attentive, and watchful parent, 

 carrying or leading them from one pool to another, 

 as her fears or inclinations direct her; and she is 

 known in this country to use the same wily strata- 

 gems to mislead the sportsman and his dog, as 

 those before noticed respecting the Partridge. 



Like the rest of the Duck tribes, the Mallards, in 

 prodigious numbers, quit the north at the end of 

 autumn, and migrating southward, arrive at the 



VOL. II. 2 O 



