MALLARD 
35 
she does not leave the young at all. The drakes have long before separated from 
their mates, gathered into small groups and retired to dense reed-beds to moult, 
becoming exceedingly shy, and keeping themselves completely concealed. The 
quills are shed with extreme rapidity, sometimes all dropping out in one day 
(Millais, 1902), so that the males are incapable of flight for a considerable period, 
depending upon the number of quills shed at one time. The eclipse plumage is 
complete by late June or July, and lasts the rest of the summer, but there is no time 
during this period when some change in the plumage is not taking place. 
Status. The Mallard has greatly increased in numbers in the British Isles since 
the passage of the Wild Birds Protection Act in 1880. Before that time the birds 
were shot indiscriminately, even the young being killed before they were on the wing. 
The increase is said to be most noticeable in the low-lying districts of the eastern 
counties, south of the Humber (Cordeaux, 1896; Kelso, 1913). An idea of the enor- 
mous numbers of Mallards and other ducks killed during the eighteenth century 
may be obtained by consulting Payne-Gallwey (1886). Pennant (1776) speaks of 
over 31,000 ducks taken in one season in ten decoys near Wainfleet, Lincolnshire. 
Early in the nineteenth century most of the fens had been drained and the numerous 
decoys were rapidly discontinued. Yarrell (1856) and other writers bewail the great 
reduction, particularly in breeding birds, before their time. On the Continent there 
appears to have been a decrease by the beginning of the nineteenth century. Nau- 
mann in 1842 attributed this to the drainage of swamps and the growth of large 
cities. It is now thought that the mowing of reeds has an injurious effect, by de- 
priving the birds of suitable nesting places and of shelter during moult. According 
to Fritsch (1872) there were only 6346 Mallards killed in all Bohemia in 1857. Nau- 
mann (1896-1905) points out that the species must have been much more common 
there at an earlier period, for Palliardi tells us that in 1507 no less than 3020 were 
shot on one pond. Even in 1900 as many as 3521 were shot on the estates of Prince 
Schwarzenberg alone. Von Buda writing in 1906 says that fifty years before, the 
species was very common in southeastern Hungary, while in his time it had become 
scarce. All over Europe the local breeding birds have greatly decreased in number, 
but the migrants seem to be holding their own much more successfully. Griscom 
(1921) estimated about 100,000 at the Camargue delta of the Rhone in December, 
1918. An interesting series of figures as to the ducks taken in the decoys of the 
Friesian Isles is given by Naumann (1896-1905) and they point to the same condi- 
tions. 
No marked decrease has, so far as I know, been reported from India or China, but 
the species must be diminishing in both of these localities, for the natives are more 
and more commonly supplied with shot-guns. Mallards have been shipped from the 
lower Yangtse to the markets of Europe (Ghidini, 1911). 
