﻿92 ANATID.E. 



pected, as the weather was open and fine, and warm for 

 the time of the year, that this pair had remained so unusually 

 late for the purpose of breeding. This proved to be the 

 case, for on the 8th, as we were again walking about the 

 same place, we discovered an egg, undoubtedly of this 

 species ; it was deposited in the slightly hollowed platform 

 of a willow stump, close to the stem of an oak ; the egg 

 was laid upon the green moss with which the stump was 

 covered, with the addition only of half-a-dozen dead grasses : 

 the platform was about six feet and a half above the water. 

 The egg must have been laid since the morning, as we had 

 passed the place before, when it was not there. We took 

 the egg, which measured two inches four lines, by one inch 

 five lines, and weighed nearly two ounces : we placed it 

 under a tame duck on the 23rd of March, and it was 

 hatched on the 21st of April. The young duck refused 

 food and lived only two days ; it was much smaller than 

 its foster brethren, of a more lively appearance, and differed 

 from them considerably in colour, being much darker in 

 its downy plumage, the colours of which were dusky and 

 gallstone yellow ; its beak and legs were lead coloured. , ' ) 



The eggs of the Wild Duck are from ten to fourteen in 

 number ; and when the female leaves the nest, during the 

 time of incubation, she usually covers them with down and 

 grasses so as to hide them from view. 



The measurements of the Mallard are twenty-four inches 

 from the tip of the beak to the extremity of the tail ; 

 the beak two inches and a quarter, from the forehead ; 

 the tarsus one inch eleven lines ; middle toe two inches 

 five lines ; the wing, from the carpus to the tip, ten inches 

 nine lines. 



The plumage of the adult male is as follows : — The head 

 and neck rich metallic green, the lower part surrounded 



