24 
The Natural History of British Ducks 
The Young Mallard Drake 
The young Mallard drake takes about eight weeks to assume in full the 
feathers of his first plumage. In wild birds this is sometimes attained, in the 
south of England, as early as May i, but in the Shetlands it may be as late 
as September 15. During the first fortnight the plumage in some measure 
resembles that of the adult female, or more closely, perhaps, that of the young 
female. The differences, however, are constant and well marked, as will be 
seen, I think, in the illustrations, where I have pointed out how the two sexes, 
even in their first plumage, may be readily distinguished. In typical speci- 
mens the young male is considerably darker all over the neck, back, scapulars, 
tail and rump ; and though in rarer instances the plumage of young males 
may seem to closely resemble that of the young females, the feathers of the 
lower back and rump will always be found to be very dark brown throughout, 
and not cross-ribbed with light brown bars, as is invariably the case with the 
young female. Another distinguishing feature is the top of the head, which 
in the young male is dark brown throughout, whereas in the young female all 
the feathers on the top of the head are dark brown edged with sandy yellow ; 
the dark bar, too, extending from the top of the bill straight back to and 
beyond the eye, is much stronger and less broken up on the male bird than on 
the young female. The only other point of difference is the wing ; but this is 
not by any means a constant one. All that can be said is that, as a general 
rule, the wing of the young male is far more brilliant in colour than that of 
the female. About the shoulder the wing of the former is an even grey- 
brown, whilst that of the latter is a slightly duller shade, and each feather 
is edged with light grey. Moreover, the two long, richly coloured feathers of 
the secondaries, immediately below the scapulars, often come into the first 
plumage of both young male and female, so fully complete and distinctive in 
colouring as to leave no doubt as to sex. Young males are also larger than 
young females. 
