230 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
d’Hamonville, who for some years past has been engaged in 
making observations of his own on the subject, and who not 
long since published the result of his investigations in the 
‘ Bulletin de la Société Zoologique de France’ (vol. ix., pp. 101— 
106). As probably few of our readers may have an opportunity 
of consulting this essay, we have thought it worth while to 
translate the most important portion of it relating to the 
moulting of Wild Ducks, not omitting certain other observations 
on the habits of these birds at different seasons of the year, 
which are worth perusal, as coming from the pen of an accom- 
plished sportsman and naturalist. 
Passing over some generalities, and a reference to a paper by 
M. Gerbe, published in the ‘ Revue et Magasin de Zoologie ’ 
(1875, pp. 271—-277), on the mode in which the flight-feathers 
are moulted in certain Puffins and Divers, we come to the 
following sentence, which contains the sum and substance of the 
observations which are subsequently detailed :— ‘‘ While the 
male of Anas boscas loses the power of flight with the loss of his 
primaries, the female Wild Duck moults gradually, like the 
majority of birds, without being deprived for a moment of the 
use of her wings.” 
These facts, says Baron d’Hamonville, have long been known 
to us, but we were anxious to study them more attentively before 
making them public. We believe we are now in a position to do 
so. The Wild Ducks, which take up their abode on our pools in 
separate families till the beginning of autumn, collect at that 
season in large flocks of several hundreds, without ever mingling 
either with others of their own species which arrive on their 
migration, or with any of the numerous other wildfowl which 
about the same time visit our waters to seek food and shelter. 
When the hard frosts of winter supervene, and the pools are 
entirely frozen over, our native ducks do not leave them, but 
congregate in the middle, though every evening at dusk they 
take flight to the streams, where the less frigid water furnishes 
them with an abundant supply of cress and other aquatic plants. 
But, alas! at the very place where they seek life they not 
unfrequently meet with death, for the sportsman who knows 
their habits lies in wait there to shoot them at flight-time. In 
hard winters, when the ice completely invades their domain and 
they are temporarily forced to abandon it, they betake themselves 
