218 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH INLAND BIRDS 
daily in hard seasons ; these birds chiefly frequent 
good-sized lakes, or expanses of flooded land, and 
generally supply the largest heading in the records 
of the duck-decoys, which are still worked with 
success in some parts of the country. The winter 
plumage both of the Drake (or Mallard proper) 
and the Duck are too familiar to need description, 
but it is not so well known that a little before 
midsummer the Drake begins to lose all his brilliant 
male markings, and during the latter part of the 
summer wears a dull brown dress which is very 
like that of the Duck. He regains his full plumage 
in October. A similar change is undergone by 
all the fresh-water family of Ducks, to which 
belong this and the next six species described. 
The Mallard begins to nest at the end of 
March, or early in April, and the nest is 
generally placed near some pond, lake, or stream, 
and on the ground, among reeds, grass, or brush- 
wood, or in a hedge. But not at all infrequently 
it is half a mile or more from water, and on dry, 
upland ground, while it is also not very unusual 
to find the Mallard's nest on the crown of a 
pollard willow, or in a fork or hollow in some 
other kind of tree, or even in an old Magpie's or 
Woodpigeon's nest. It is made of dry grass, well 
mixed and lined with down picked from the body 
of the bird. Eight to a dozen eggs are laid, 
