MALLARD 
17 
lards do not migrate as far as Teals or Pintails, usually not over 50 or 100 miles. Returns from many 
banded Mallards in England show how extremely local the home-bred stock is. These records are 
summed up in the reports of the British marking experiments in British Birds. A note by Poncins 
(1917) has brought out the same facts, and he considers the Mallards reared in France just as local as 
the English ones. To show how very local the British stock is we might note that of 80 ringed as 
nestlings and afterwards recovered, only two were reported outside of England. One of these was 
from Danzig, east Prussia, and the other from Nord, France. Part of this lot were hand-reared birds, 
but this seemed to make little or no difference in their ultimate distribution. They belonged to an 
extremely sedentary group. 
With adult Mallards banded in England between September and March (mostly in February) 
the results are different as we should expect. Out of 60 ringed in Wigtownshire, 52 were recovered 
at home and 8 away from home, in various localities, including Ireland, the Faroes, Finland, 
Sweden, Friesland, and Swedish Lapland (British Birds). Adult Mallards banded in Holland, mostly 
in the spring (April), show a great many local records but some from Germany, Sweden, Denmark, 
Finland, etc. (van Oort, Ardea, vols. 1-4, 1912-1915; see recent summary bj' Thomson, 1923). 
Mallards that breed farther north, in Kurland, were shown by Thienemann (l915) to have taken a 
course southwesterly along the coast, one covering a distance of 1400 kilometers to Belgium, and one 
1600 kilometers to Plancy, northern France. Another young of the year banded in eastern Prussia, was 
taken the following March near Olmiitz, Moravia, a distance of 570 kilometers south-southwest, 
but it may have been on its way north by an inland route. Others showed a tendency to return to 
their birthplace. These records are interesting because they show a probable northeast to south- 
west trend for migrants from Scandinavia and the Baltic lands. Moreover, although the British 
Mallards that have been banded were mostly the local breeding stock, there are a few that show an 
interchange with Danzig, east Prussia, France, and Swedish Lapland. One marked in Finland was 
shot in Scotland the same year (London Field, vol. 129, p. 112, 1917). 
Now it is interesting to note that a group of much smaller Mallards which arrive at the British 
Isles in winter and seem to prefer the coast, have long been recognized by sportsmen and profes- 
sional gunners. They are said to weigh very much less than the home-bred ducks and are usually 
under two pounds. So great is the difference in size that a smaller price is paid for them in the 
markets. Very likely this difference in weight is due to poorer living conditions in their northern 
home, or later nesting, but some observers in the British Isles are inclined to consider these “foreign” 
birds as a distinctly smaller Scandinavian race with a wing of only 270-273 mm. (A. Chapman, 
1889; Smalley, 1919; Beveridge, 1919). However, a small Scandinavian race was not found by 
Hartert (1920) so perhaps these birds are from Iceland. The home-bred British birds were thought 
by Payne-Gallwey (1886) to suffer more from frost than the small northern ducks. I feel sure that 
there is something significant about all these reports, for in the Mississippi Valley intelligent sports- 
men recognize a very late flight of small Mallards which have even been given local names, such as 
Frosty-biUs, Snow Mallards, Ice-breakers, etc. The banding of some of these might bring interesting 
results. 
In western Europe the migration is later in the autunm and earlier in the spring than in North 
America, and it may be found that in spring, birds return by a more inland route. In Asia, where 
extremes of climate are much greater, and there are large central deserts, we find a more pronounced 
passage area, and a much greater north to south excursion. Prjevalski (Deditius, 1886) found the 
species migrating across the deserts of northern Tibet in great numbers. The dates of arrival and 
departure do not differ greatly from those found in the interior of North America. In the north, 
migration starts early and ends early; in the south it begins late and ends late. We really do not 
know anything about the direction of migration routes in different parts of Asia, but since the 
central parts are so cut up with mountains, deserts and inland seas, with very irregular river systems, 
we must assume that the picture is a very complicated one. Although there must be nearly sedentary 
