214 



REPTILES AND BIRDS. 



singular alteration. About the end of May the breast and back of 

 the drake begin to change colour ; in a few days the curled feathers 

 of the tail drop out, and grey feathers begin to appear in the lovely 

 green plumage round the eyes ; and, by the 23rd of June, scarcely 

 one green feather remains. By the 6th of July all the green feathers 

 have disappeared, and the male has assumed the female garb, but 

 darker in colour. In August this new plumage begins to drop off, 

 and by the middle of October the drake again reappears in all the 

 rich magnificence of its former dress. 



The Mallard (Fig. 83) forms the original stock from which our 



Fig. 83.— Wild Ducks or Mallard. 



Domestic Ducks have sprung. Their favourite resorts are to be 

 found in those hyperborean regions whose rigorous climate renders 

 it uninhabitable by man. The rivers of Lapland, Greenland, and 

 Siberia are sometimes literally covered with them ; and, in the month 

 of May, their nests are there found in quantities which imagination 

 can scarcely picture. At the first approach of frost their earliest 

 harbingers begin to appear among us, and about the middle of October 

 these travelling bands arrive in increasing numbers. 



Wild Ducks have a sustained and rapid flight With powerful 

 wings they raise themselves either from the land or water, and mount 

 perpendicularly above the summits of the loftiest trees, when they 

 take a more horizontal course, maintaining themselves at a great 

 height, and making long journeys without rest. Triangular columns 



