MALLARD. 165 



made of its feathers is far preferable to the damp earth of the camp of an 

 American woodsman, or the plank on which the trained soldier lays his 

 wearied limbs at night. You may find many other' particulars if you 

 consult in chronological order all the compilers from Aldrovandds to 

 the present day. 



Be not startled, good Reader, when I tell you that many of these 

 ducks are bred in the lakes near the Mississippi, nay even in some of the 

 small ponds in the low lands or bottoms of the States of Kentucky, In- 

 diana and Illinois; for in many parts of those districts I have surprised 

 the females on their eggs, have caught the young when their mother was 

 cautiously and with anxiety leading them for greater safety to some 

 stream, and have shot many a fat one before the poor thing could fly, 

 and when it was so plump, tender, and juicy, that I doubt much whether, 

 you, like myself, should not much prefer them to the famed Canvass- 

 backed Duck. 



Look at that Mallard as he floats on the lake ; see his elevated head 

 glittering with emerald-green, his amber eyes glancing in the light ! Even 

 at this distance, he has marked you, and suspects that you bear no good 

 will towards him, for he sees that you have a gun, and he has many a 

 time been frightened by its report, or that of some other. The wary 

 bird draws his feet under his body, springs upon them, opens his wings, 

 and with loud quacks bids you farewell. 



Now another is before you, on the margin of that purling streamlet. 

 How brisk are all his motions compared with those of his brethren that 

 waddle across your poultry-yard ! how much more graceful in form and 

 neat in apparel ! The duck at home is the descendant of a race of slaves, 

 and has lost his native spirit : his wings have been so little used that they 

 can hardly raise him from the ground. But the free-born, the untamed 

 duck of the swamps, — see how he springs on wing, and hies away over 

 the woods. 



The Mallards generally arrive in Kentucky and other parts of the 

 Western Country, from the middle of September to the first of October, 

 or as soon as the acorns and beech-nuts are fully ripe. In a few days 

 they are to be found in all the ponds that are covered with seed-bearing 

 grasses. Some flocks, which appear to be guided by an experienced 

 leader, come directly down on the water with a rustling sound of their 

 wings that can be compared only to the noise produced by an Eagle in 

 the act of stooping upon its prey, while other flocks, as if they felt un- 



