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DUCKS, GEESE, SWANS, AND PELICANS. 



The Common Duck, or Mallard. 



English Synonyms. — Mallard : McGillivray, Jenyns. Common Wild 



Duck: Montagu, Selby. 

 Latin Synonym. — Anas loschas : Liun., Latham, Jonyns, Bonaparte, 



Temminck. 

 Feencii Sy'Nonym. — Canard sauvage : Temminck. 



Tlie plumage of tlie Wild Duck is dense and elastic. The head, 

 throat, and ujjper part of the neck of the male are adorned with 

 hues of a bright emerald green, shot with violet ; its breast is of a 

 puiplish brown ; its back is ashj^ brown, sprinkled with greyish- 

 white zigzag bars ; the four feathers in the middle of the tail, 

 cuiiing up at the end in a semicircle, are of a blackish hue with 

 a green reflection ; its length is about twenty-four inches ; length 

 of wing, thirty-five inches. The female, which is always smaller 

 than her mate, does not possess the bright colours which adorn 

 the Drake. Her plumage is brown and russet grej'. Individuals 



Fiy Sii.— Wild Ducks [Aaas buschax). 



sometimes, though seldom, vary. Sir William Jardine states 

 that he has seen Drakes having the upper parts of a bluish o-rev, 

 decreasing in depth of colouring down the breast ; and Mr. 

 Yarrell mentions two instances in which females of this species 

 have assumed, to a considerable extent, the appearance and pluma"-c 

 of the ]Mallard, even to the curling feathers of the tail. On the 

 other hand, the male plumage, according to Mr. Waterton, under- 

 goes a singular alteration. About the end of May the breast and 



