20 
AiV^S BOSCHAS 
become entirely nocturnal, and their habits in this respect are not fully developed 
until they become localized on their wintering grounds. As a rule the later the 
season, the less they feed by day. The time of the evening flight is largely governed 
by the weather, and the condition of the bird’s crop. On dark stormy evenings, after 
Mallards have been subjected all day to wind and wave, they, like other ducks, will 
seek food and shelter much earlier, even though they are being constantly shot at. 
They feed readily on dark nights but even better on moonlight ones, at which times, 
if they are very shy, they do not flight until long after dark, especially if the evening 
is calm and clear. But it is very rare to find the Mallard exclusively nocturnal in any 
sort of locality. Where it inhabits large tracts of marsh by no means all of the birds 
desert the feeding ground during the day. There are always some individuals whose 
actions are governed by their stomachs rather than by their heads. 
At Currituck Sound, on the coast of North Carolina, where ducks are not com- 
pletely nocturnal in their habits, there are on fair winter days flights to the sea by 
the more wary birds, as soon as a gun is fired or a boat pushed about the marshes. 
Then there is a brief morning flight over the marsh which begins to slacken by eight 
or nine o’clock, after which, if the day be calm, scarcely a duck will move until early 
in the afternoon. It goes without saying that early in the shooting season, fewer 
ducks go to sea than later on. From about two o’clock in the afternoon, there is 
another movement of the ducks that have been resting in the marshes, to the favor- 
ite feeding grounds, but very few return from the sea unless a sudden change of wind 
forces them to seek shelter. This afternoon movement often ceases in an hour or two, 
after which there is a period till sundown when the marsh seems perfectly deserted. 
Hardly has the sun set, however, when the whole scene is changed to one of great 
animation : huge hosts of Mallards, Teals, Widgeons, and diving ducks come in from 
the sea, flying at a great height, but coming lower as the darkness increases, till 
finally the marshes are thickly populated with thousands of ducks, and great rafts 
of trumpeting swans and honking geese. 
The bathing and playing periods, during which they indulge in all sorts of short 
splashing dives and flights, take place in the morning, after their crops are full, and 
before the resting period,, during which they are often seen basking in the sun in 
some out-of-the-way nook or on banks. The play is most actively indulged in by 
young birds just acquiring their full plumage, before they have entirely lost their 
diving habits. 
Migration is performed chiefly at night, but there is no hard-and-fast rule and 
under certain weather conditions, as yet imperfectly understood, ducks and geese 
may migrate all day and halt for the night. 
Gait. In the pure wild species the walk is fast and elegant, though rather 
waddling in character. In specimens only one degree removed from the wild, the 
