162 THE MALLARD. 
In texture the shell is very fine and smooth, and has a faint 
gloss. The egg is quite devoid of markings, and when freshly 
laid, has a dull pale greenish tint; but as incubation proceeds 
it changes to a very pale drab, or dingy stone colour, and every 
intermediate shade is observable. In size they differ little from 
those of the Grey Duck, but the latter are always whiter, and 
never exhibit the green tinge so conspicuous in the freshly- 
laid egg of the Mallard. . 
The eggs vary in length from 2°1 to 2°38, and in breadth from 
I'5 to 1:72; but the average of thirty eggs is 2°23 by 1°6. 
THE MALES are larger and run much heavier than the females ; 
the former measure :— 
Length, 22°5 to 24°5 ; expanse, 35:0 to 38:0; wing, 10°45 to 
11°3; tail from vent, 4:2 to 48; tarsus, 1°6 to 1°35 3 bill from 
gape, 25 to 2°75 ; weight, if in fair condition, 2 lbs. 8 ozs. to 
3 lbs., but I have shot them up to 4 lbs. ! 
The females measure :— 
Length, 20°0 to 21°75 ; expanse, 33'0 to 35'0 ; wing, 9'2 to 108 ; 
tail from vent, 41 to 4'7; tarsus, 1°5 to 1°7; bill from gape, 
2°47 to 2'63 ; weight (as above), 1 lb. 10 ozs. to 2 lbs. 10 ozs. 
The colours of the soft parts vary. I have found the legs 
and feet most commonly reddish orange, but also coral and 
vermilion red, and again pure orange; the claws are black, or 
dusky, and more or less of the webs are often more or less 
dusky ; the irides are brown, sometimes deep, sometimes com- 
paratively light; the nail of the bill is black; the rest of 
the bill is normally a rather dingy olive, yellower at base, 
greener at tip ; the lower mandible is generally more or less 
orange at the base, and I have killed birds, females, with the bills 
black on the culmen and a considerable portion of the upper 
mandible, and orange yellow elsewhere; others with brown 
replacing the black, and brownish yellow replacing the orange, 
and I killed one male with the bill, a distinct orange green, a 
colour such as I never saw in any other bird. 
THE PLATE would be quite satisfactory (though the drawing 
of the female is rather coarse) had not the bill of the male 
been drawn rather too short and quite wrongly coloured, and had 
not that of the female been coloured after an abnormal speci- 
men. The plumage varies a good deal; in many males the 
head is a deeper and richer green, and the chest a deeper 
and more maroon chestnut than in our figure. In many the 
vermicellations of the sides and lower parts are barely discern- 
ible; in the specimen figured they happened to be particularly 
strongly marked. Again, in this and many other species, the 
entire lower parts are often strongly suffused with an ochraceous 
buff tint, which has been the subject of much discussion. That - 
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