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THE MALLARD. 



Anas Boschas, Linn. 



PLATE CCXXI. Males and Females. 



Although it is commonly believed that the Mallard is found abun- 

 dantly everywhere in the United States, I have received sufficient proof 

 to the contrary. If authors had acknowledged that they state so on re- 

 port, or had said that in the tame state the bird is common, I should not 

 have blamed them. According to my observation, and I may be allowed 

 to say that I have had good opportunities, this valuable species is ex- 

 tremely rare in the wild state, in the neighbourhood of Boston in Mas- 

 sachusetts ; and in this assertion, I am supported by my talented and 

 amiable friend Mr Nuttall, who has resided there for many years. Far- 

 ther eastward, this bird is so rare that it is scarcely known, and not one 

 was seen by myself or my party beyond Portland in Maine. On the 

 western coast of Labrador none of the inhabitants that we conversed with 

 had ever seen the Mallard, and in Newfoundland the people were equally 

 unacquainted with it, the species being in those countries replaced by the 

 Black Duck, Anas fusca. From New York southward, the Mallards 

 become more plentiful, and numbers of them are seen in the markets of 

 Philadelphia, Baltimore, Richmond in Virginia, and other towns. Al- 

 though they are very abundant in the Carolinas and Floridas, as well as 

 in Lower Louisiana, they are much more so in the Western Country. 

 The reason of this is merely that the Mallard, unlike the sea ducks, is 

 rarely seen on salt water, and that its course from the countries where it 

 chiefly breeds is across the interior of the continent. From our great 

 lakes, they spread along the streams, betake themselves to the ponds, 

 wet meadows, submersed savannahs, and inland swamps, and are even 

 found in the thick beech woods, in early autumn, and indeed long before 

 the males have acquired the dark green colour of the head. Many of 

 them proceed beyond the limits of the United States. 



It would be curious to know when this species was first domesticated ; 

 but. Reader, the solution of such a question is a task on which I shall 

 not venture. In the domestic state every body knows the Mallard. 

 When young it affords excellent food, and when old lays eggs. A bed 



