390 THE MALLARD. 



the month of May; and on the 27th day of October, the same bird 

 brought out a second brood of eleven. In an evil hour, they strayed 

 too far from the water. A tame raven met them on their travels, 

 and killed every bird. 



At the close of the breeding season, the drake undergoes a very 

 remarkable change of plumage. On viewing it, all speculation on the 

 part of the ornithologist is utterly confounded, for there is not the 

 smallest clue afforded him by which he may be enabled to trace out 

 the cause of the strange phenomenon. To Him alone who has 

 ordered the ostrich to remain on the earth, and allowed the bat to 

 range through the ethereal vault of heaven, is it known why the drake, 

 for a very short period of the year, should be so completely clothed 

 in the raiment of the female, that it requires a keen and penetrating 

 eye to distinguish the one from the other. About the 24th of May, 

 the breast and back of the drake exhibit the first appearance of a 

 change of colour. In a few days after this, the curled feathers above 

 the tail drop out, and gray feathers begin to appear amongst the 

 lovely green plumage which surrounds the eyes. Every succeeding 

 day now brings marks of rapid change. By the 23d of June scarcely 

 one single green feather is to be seen on the head and neck of the 

 bird. By the 6th of July every feather of the former brilliant 

 plumage has made its disappearance, and the male has received a 

 garb like that of the female, though of a somewhat darker tint. In 

 the early part of August this new plumage begins to change gradually, 

 and by the loth of October the drake will appear again in all his 

 magnificence of dress, than which scarcely anything throughout the 

 whole wild field of nature can seem more lovely, or better arranged 

 to charm the eye of man. This description of the change of plumage 

 in the mallard has been penned down with great care. I enclosed 

 two male birds in a coop, from the middle of May till the middle of 

 October, and saw them every day during the whole of their captivity. 

 Perhaps the moulting in other individuals may vary a trifle with 

 regard to time. Thus we may say that once every year, for a very 

 short period, the drake goes, as it were, into an eclipse ; so that, 

 from the early part of the month of July to about the first week in 

 August, neither in the poultry-yards of civilised man, nor through 

 the vast expanse of nature's wildest range, can there be found a 



