Birds. 4997 



leading to the pools, and there regale themselves with an excursion up and down the 

 water, and pay a visit to the wild ducks which frequented the place ; but though their 

 colours were so different,— as is the case with the white and pied pheasants here, — 

 there appeared to exist no annoyance or reluctance to allow them to approach the 

 others, and both kinds seemed to do very well, except that the tame ducks unwisely 

 were seen occasionally to land and preen their feathers underneath the projecting 

 ledges of the rocks before mentioned, and close to where the foxes were accustomed to 

 pass in their nightly perambulations, and quite within their hearing in the day time: 

 no harm, however, occurred for a considerable time, till one of the white ducks was 

 found one morning minus its head, the rest having been left untouched by the foxes, 

 who had plenty of rabbits and other food to feed themselves with. How much or how 

 long the white mallard grieved for his dear departed spouse is uncertain, for having 

 another still left he appeared not to take on inordinately : in a few weeks afterwards 

 his other spouse made a nest away from home, which some other tame ducks never ven- 

 tured to do, and having selected a place too near to the haunts of the foxes her nursery 

 cares were soon over, for she one night disappeared altogether, as might have been 

 expected: her sorrowing husband now mourned for his loss in earnest, and might 

 be seen slowly swimming all over the pool, calling, in his low subdued note, for his 

 absent helpmate ; but this proving of no avail, and having the use of his wings, 

 he soon began to take short flights round about, and from one pool to another, 

 calling mournfully to his lost duck, but finding no alleviation to his sorrows he 

 immediately paid his addresses to a wild duck then sitting upon nine eggs and 

 near hatching: so pertinacious was he in his suit that he refused the poor duck any 

 respite, and insisted upon her quitting her nest and coming upon the pool to listen to 

 his amorous appeals, and consort with him : this lasted for some time, till at last he 

 actually pulled and drove the poor duck off her nest, and made her desert it and leave 

 the place altogether, disdainiug the white mallard's overtures and pretended adoration. 

 But he was not to be baffled in pursuit of a third spouse, and he immediately took to 

 another duck sitting on thirteen eggs, and, following out the same system with this one 

 as with the former duck, he at last destroyed every one of the eggs, which were found 

 strewed about under water near the nest; but here again the faithful duck would have 

 nothing to do with this Turk-like, white-turbaned suitor. Still this inexorable mal- 

 lard once more assailed a third duck, sitting, like the two former, on ten eggs, and 

 after driving her from her nest and harassing her in every possible way, he finally 

 forced her into a soft muddy place, from which the poor duck, after many per- 

 sonal assaults by the mallard, could not extricate herself, and was found smothered. 

 Thus had this implacable animal destroyed three wild ducks' nests and one of the old 

 birds as well, within the space of about ten days ; and instead of boldly making up to 

 some young unmarried duck or widow of the tame kind, or even wild ones, of which 

 there were plenty about, nothing would assuage his passion but this persevering prose- 

 cution of his lawless desires, and the ultimate destruction of three anticipated hopeful 

 families of young wild ducks— sad emblem and example of what too often happens in 

 human life. Finding the havoc which was thus being made amongst the wild ducks, 

 I ordered this tyrant of the waters — as nothing else would keep him in order— to be 

 shot and given to the foxes, which was accordingly immediately done.— W. H. Slaney ; 

 Hatton Hall, January, 1856. 



