700 COURTSHIP OF DUCKS AND NOTES ON HYBRIDS. 
Teal duck, but this bird died when a fortnight old. Hybrids 
between Garganey and Shoveler have been obtained. 
Last year a Wild Duck took up her abode on one of my 
ponds, but I regret to say that her morals were somewhat 
lax, for she persuaded a Rosy-bill drake to leave his own wife. 
Seventeen eggs resulted, but only five proved fertile, all of 
which hatched and the young ducklings duly reached maturity 
and proved to be four drakes and one duck. I would like to 
draw a veil over this Wild Duck’s next love affair ; however, 
as it was rather interesting scientifically, although socially 
scandalous, we must proceed. A second batch of eggs was 
laid by her, and, to my horror, these produced two different 
kinds of ducklings, some being hybrids between the old 
Rosy-bill drake and the Wild Duck, the rest hybrids between a 
Pintail drake and the Wild Duck. I wonder what those 
ducklings thought of their mother ! 
It is very difficult to account for colour in hybrids, as you 
will see from this skin. The male hybrid between Rosy-bill 
and Wild Duck has the breast lighter chocolate than a pure 
Mallard, although the breast of a Rosy-bill is pure black ; one 
would expect a darker, if not a black, breast in the hybrid in 
consequence. 
Very late in the season this year I found a duck’s nest, 
containing one small cream-coloured egg, at a considerable 
distance from the pond. This I put down to a Teal of some 
sort, but to my surprise, about eight days later, I found a 
White-eyed Pochard duck in the nest incubating six eggs. 
This was curious, as I have never previously seen a diving- 
duck’s nest more than five yards from the water’s edge. I 
lifted the eggs and put them under a bantam, and in due 
course two hatched. Their appearance gave me rather a 
shock, for the lighter parts were white, whereas the lighter 
parts of a White-eyed Pochard duckling are rich yellow. It 
was therefore obvious that these ducklings were hybrids, 
and the only male parent possible, judging by the colour of 
the young birds, was a Pintail drake. Here, then, we have 
hybrids between a surface-feeder and a diving-duck, two 
