BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 265 
THE MALLARD. Anas hoscas, Linnaeus. 
Local names— Flapper (of the young) ; Mire-duck ; Moss- 
duck ; Grey Duck ; Wild Duck. 
, , "... The wild ducks oft, 
With short quick pmions, and long necks stretched out, 
bped o er our valley to the plashy springs 
That never freeze." 
Thomas Aird. — "A Winter's Day.'' 
A common resident, whose numbers are increased in winter by immigrants 
trom the Contment and the north. 
The extensive drainage of what were formerly haunts of 
the Mallard has deprived this species of many favourite 
resorts ; but at the present day the fashion of hand-rearing 
these birds for sport must tend to increase our resident stock. 
The references in both the Statistical Accounts of Scotland 
show the Wild Duck to have been generaUy distributed 
throughout the county, and in severe winters great numbers 
were seen in such places as the Lochar Moss and the 
Lochmaben lakes. 
In a collection of local verse entitled the Nithsdale 
Minstrel, pubhshed in 1815, we find : 
" For the wild duck spread the artful snare " — 
a reference to a practice which I have not personally met 
with though I am told that on the shores of the Solway 
ordinary " figure of four " rabbit-traps are set in " plashy " 
spots frequented by duck ; and that also lines and hooks 
baited with slugs or worms and attached to a stout peg are 
still used for taking wild-fowl, in spite of the " Wild Birds 
Protection Act, 1908." 
A most remarkable story appears in the Dumfries and 
Galloway Courier in 1818. A farmer in Annandale took 
a setting of Wild Duck's eggs, twelve in number, and 
hatched them successfully under a hen. The brood all 
left their stepmother with the exception of one duck, 
