698 COURTSHIP OF DUCKS AND NOTES ON HYBRIDS. 
but the same stretching out of the swollen neck is seen. The 
White-eyed drake also frequently pushes his neck, still dis- 
tended with air, backwards and forwards, and utters a call 
exactly similar to the well-known note of the Mallard, only 
very faint, as though the Mallard was a long way away. I 
have never had the opportunity of observing the true sea- 
ducks, i.e., Long-tailed ducks, Scoters, Goosanders, Mergansers, 
Smews, etc., in display, but some of these may be seen to great 
advantage in the Zoological Gardens of Amsterdam and 
Rotterdam. 
To attempt to give a description of the courtship of all 
the foreign ducks would be out of the question, but there 
are one or two foreign ducks which have noticeable courtship. 
For instance, the Mandarin duck of China. Have you ever 
noticed the display of the common tame Pigeon ; how, after 
strutting and jumping round the hen with his breast blown out, 
the male suddenly turns his head round his back and pecks 
behind one wing, at the same time slightly lifting that wing 
from the body ? The Mandarin drake in display does exactly 
the same thing, and this is not the only respect in which 
Mandarins are somewhat similar to pigeons. The wings of . 
both Mandarins and Carolinas are like pigeons in that they 
show more of the primaries than does any other duck when at 
rest, because the scapulars do not come nearly so far down the 
back as in other ducks ; their flight, too, through the trees is 
like that of pigeons. The display of the Mandarin is a very 
showy one; it has the same “throw up” as our Mallard, but 
the crest is fully expanded, and the fan-like feathers of the 
scapulars are separated and erected so that from a posterior 
point of view one can see right up the back between these 
feathers. They also have the habit, when in display, of slowly 
lowering the head as though drinking, so that the tip of the 
bill just enters the water ; and then the head is jerked back 
quickly. 
The courtship of the Chilian Teal is interesting, in that 
drakes, in confinement at any rate, court the whole year 
through. I noticed my tame birds in full display the day after 
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