MALLARD 
19 
ature drops to 40° below zero (Fahrenheit). In various localities it has been found 
wintering as well as breeding at high altitudes, — for example in our Rocky Moun- 
tains (where I have seen them apparently resident at 6000 feet), in Switzerland 
and in Kashmir. 
ARINESS. The Mallard is wild, and becomes increasingly so through persecu- 
tion. But perhaps it should be called intelligent, rather than shy by nature. If left 
to itself on protected waters and in city parks it soon becomes so tame that it wdll 
allow passers-by to come within five or ten yards, just as our still more wary Black 
Duck does. Naumann (1896-1905) tells of certain individuals that were long pro- 
tected in the German town of Cbthen, and which were accustomed to parade the 
streets and even fiy from one street to the other. In this country many parks are 
frequented by thousands of ducks of this and other species who walk about the lawns 
in close proximity to busy driveways. Wherever it is regularly fed there is almost 
no limit to its sociability with man, but these same birds outside the protected 
area are just as wary as the rest of their kind. In wilder countries where birds are 
less persecuted. Mallards are of course much tamer, but nowadays there are few 
regions within its range that do not echo to the sound of the cheap breech-loader. 
Where suitable laws are enforced the summer season restores their eonfidence, but 
it is extraordinary how little time it takes to make them as wild as ever. Young birds 
on the breeding grounds, as I have seen them in our western States, are by no 
means shy, but the process of education proceeds very rapidly, more rapidly I 
should say, than with most ducks. To quote instances of the wisdom of the adult 
bird would be a waste of time, for every sportsman is but too well posted on this sub- 
ject. Speaking from my own experience, especially as to their behavior when shot 
over live or artificial decoys, I am quite certain that they never equal either Pin- 
tail or Wddgeon in correctly “sizing up” danger spots, or measuring the range of a 
gun. Neither do they ever, excepting perhaps in England, grow so completely noc- 
turnal and almost un-get-at-able as our Red-legged Black Ducks {Anas rubripes 
ruhripes). References to the tameness of the Mallard in various regions may be 
found scattered throughout the literature (Hantzsch, 1905; Hume and Marshall, 
1879; Reiser, 1894), but these can all be explained by local conditions, or seasonal 
considerations. 
Daily Movements. Like all true ducks, the Mallards, before the advent of 
man, probably fed almost entirely by day, seeking small sheltered pools on which to 
spend the night. But now all this is changed. If left alone during the summer they 
feed in their sheltered haunts throughout the day, but the more they are shot at, the 
more they take to large open sheets of water to spend the daylight hours, coming in 
to the grain-fields or smaller marshes after sunset. During migration ducks cannot 
