196 



THE MALLARD. 



liant surface." Now, we all know that this garment 

 of air would have added considerably to the natural 

 levity of the bird. It ought to have had a roquelaure 

 of lead, not of air. " It seemed to quiver," con- 

 tinues Monsieur Herbert. There would have ap- 

 peared no quivering, had the bird been really walking 

 on terra firma. 



If the water ouzel, which is specifically lighter 

 than water, can manage, by some inherent power, to 

 walk on the ground at the bottom of a rivulet, then 

 there is great reason to hope that we, who are 

 heavier than air, may, any day, rise up into it, un- 

 assisted by artificial apparatus, such as wings, gas, 

 steam, or broom-staff. 



NOTES ON THE HABITS OF THE MALLARD. 



This bird yields to none of our wild water-fowl in 

 loveliness of plumage, while it far surpasses most of 

 them in the excellent flavour of its flesh. Having 

 been completely subjugated by man, it can now be 

 obtained either in its enlarged dimensions, acquired 

 by superabundance of food picked up at the barn- 

 door of its owner, or in its original small and compact 

 form, on which a precarious subsistence in the field 

 of freedom has hitherto worked no visible change. 



There cannot be a doubt that the wild duck and 

 the domestic duck have had one and the same origin. 

 They are still intimate ; for they breed together, 



