CHAPTER XVI 



THE COMMON WILD DUCK 



The Wild Duck, or Mallard, as it is more 

 generally called by all fowlers — it was always 

 Mallard when I lived near that noted decoy about 

 which there will be something to say before we have 

 done with this bird — has from those earliest times 

 when the monks of Crowland netted them in vast 

 numbers, been a fowl that all fully knew the worth 

 of. At the present time the Mallard takes the 

 front rank as a wild fowl. Endless quibbles have 

 arisen, and to little purpose, as to the origin of 

 some of our farm-yard birds ; I do not think there 

 need be any doubt in connection with the Mallard. 

 I have seen a farm-yard drake so much like the 

 wild one that it would have been impossible to tell 

 the difference between them, setting aside the 

 question of size. It is the same with geese ; where 

 they are kept in large numbers, and have wide 

 ranges, individual birds can be seen which are 

 exactly like the wild Greylag. 



The Mallards pair, so do the half-bred ones ; 

 which plainly shows that in some cases civilization 

 demoralizes, for the drake of the farm-yard is a free 



