I 36 ORNAMENTAL WATERFOWL. 
their food is procured under water, to obtain which they 
submerge the head and neck, diving, however, but seldom. 
WILD DUCK OR MALLARD. 
(Anas boscas ). 
The proper distinction in the many names by which 
this bird is known, is to apply the term “ Mallard” to 
the male only, his mate being properly the “Wild Duck.” 
Anas boscas is distributed over a vast area, being found in one 
form or another in almost every country of the Northern 
Hemisphere. It arrives on our shores in the autumn in large 
flocks, when it falls a prey to sportsmen during the months 
of October and November. From the Mallard are descended 
all our domestic varieties of Duck; the variations in the 
plumage of these, including pure white and black, having been 
produced by judicious selection and cross-breeding. The 
Mallard is among those birds which undergo a complete change 
of plumage during the summer. About the end of May the first 
change of colour occurs in the Mallard, his beautiful sexual 
plumage gradually dropping out, so that in eight or nine weeks 
he is scarcely distinguishable from the female bird. In August 
the male plumage begins to re-assert itself; the brilliant chest- 
nut and green feathers return, and thus, by the middle of 
October, the drake appears again in all his magnificence. ‘‘Wild 
Duck” frequent fresh water ponds and streams, where, if not 
persecuted, they will freely breed, rearing from eight to nine 
active little ducklings, which, the moment they leave their 
nest, exhibit great independence, and may be seen scuttling 
along the oozy banks, and plunging under the water at the first 
approach of danger. 
The Wild Duck constructs her nest of grass and small 
rushes, lining it with down from her own breast ; this is usually 
