RIVER AND POND DUCKS 



{Subfamily Anatince) 



Mallard Duck 



{Anas boschas) 



Called also: WILD OR DOMESTIC DUCK; GREEN HEAD 



(Illustration facing page 96) 



Zen^tA — 2} inches. 



Male — Head and neck glossy green with white ring like a collar 

 defining the dividing line from the rich chestnut breast; un- 

 derneath grayish white, finely marked with waving black 

 lines; back dark grayish brown, shading to black on lower 

 back and tail. Four black upper feathers of tail curve back- 

 ward; rest of tail white, black below. Speculum or wing- 

 bar rich purple with green reflections and bordered by black 

 and white. Bill greenish yellow with gutters on the side. 



Female — Plumage generally dark brown varied with buff; breast 

 and underneath buff, mottled with grayish brown; wings 

 marked like male's. 



Range — Nests rarely from Indiana and Iowa and chiefly from 

 Labrador northward; winters from Chesapeake Bay and 

 Kansas southward to Central America. Rare in New Eng- 

 land. 



Season — Winter resident in southern states; a transient visitor 

 or migrant, during the winter months, at the north. 



Small, grassy ponds, slow-moving streams, sloughs, and 

 the labyrinths of lakes and rivers that are thickly grown 

 with wild rice and rushes, such as abound in the interior 

 of the United States and Canada, make the ideal resort of the 

 mallards, or, indeed, of most ducks dear to the sportsman's heart. 

 Here large companies gather in August and September when the 

 ripened grain invites them to the feast they most enjoy, flying at 

 dusk or by night in wedge-shaped battalions from their resting- 

 grounds at the far north, to remain until the ice locks up their 

 food and they must shift their home farther south. In Illinois, 



93 



