THE MALLARD 209 



flesh of the mallard and the teal, it may be said that 

 the mallard is so fine that one sometimes wonders if 

 the blue-wing can possibly be better. 



The behavior of the two birds in the field is equally 

 good, they both come nicely to the decoys, both fly 

 swiftly and test the skill of the sportsman. The mal- 

 lard is a larger and somewhat easier mark. The teal 

 is one of the most difficult marks in feathers. I have 

 had occasion to carry a large lot of mallards, when the 

 wagon or ambulance did not find me in the marsh or 

 when the boat was necessarily left a long distance 

 from the blind, and, to say the least, the transportation 

 was laborious. The reader will find a reference to the 

 portable character of the teal in the chapter on those 

 splendid birds. 



The mallard is immediately identified, when we say 

 he is the green-headed duck of the barn-yards. The 

 latter are descended from the mallards, and in Eng- 

 land the mallards are often referred to as the stock 

 ducks. The wild bird is, of course, far more beautiful. 

 His colors are brighter and he is alert and graceful on 

 the water and can fly swiftly through the air, even in 

 the timber. 



The mallard is distributed throughout the northern 

 portion of both hemispheres, and seems entirely to have 

 escaped the ornithological variety makers. There are 

 thus no fractional species, the (a), (b), and (c) of the 

 ornithologists. The mallard, however, has shown some 

 ambition to create a new species or perhaps to puzzle 

 his ornithological biographers, as he did Audubon, by 

 an occasional intimacy with other fresh-water ducks, 

 which have resulted in some hybrid birds of most 



