THE MALLARD AND ITS ALLIES. 
33 
grey, beautifully setting off the body-colour, and the 
bill a darker shade of grey. 
On the whole, therefore, this Whistler -in-chief is not 
without its merits. Although the biggest of its race, it 
is not pugnacious, giving way to its smaller Indian 
relative, which is no doubt the reason why it is scarce 
in India. Furthermore, ic is the only one of the kind which 
has bred in confinement, a pair having built a domed nest 
in the grass of one of the enclosures in the London Zoo 
in August, 1872, hatching two ducklings, only, alas ! for 
the benefit of the rats. But fanciers should take the 
hint and aspire to breed other Whistlers, remembering 
that these birds naturally nest aloft, the small Indian 
Whistler often using old nests of other birds, and 
carrying the ducklings down in her feet when the family 
has to be set alloat. 
CHAPTER VIII. 
THE MALLARD AND ITS ALLIES. 
In this chapter I propose to deal with our native wild 
duck and some of its tame descendants, together with 
the one wild species which is at once very nearly related 
and often kept, though it must be remembered that all 
Ihe following species, until we come to the Pochards at 
the close, are near connections of the Mallard. All are 
surface feeders and ground builders, walking fairly well 
ashore, bub with a waddling gait. In nearly all the 
drakes are finely pencilled and the ducks laced, and in 
most the drake undergoes the usual vexatious change of 
colour in summer ; the young birds resemble the duck 
in their first feather. 
THE MALLARD. 
(Anasboscas.) 
I ought to endeavour to save myself trouble by say- 
ing that this bird is too well known to need description ; 
but as the species is apt to degenerate when bred in 
domestication, and may often be mongrelised when 
wild, like the Blue Rock pigeon, it is as well to charac- 
terise the points of the true Mallard. Although a big 
duck, nearly two feet long, and weighing up to three 
pounds, and rather heavy in make compared to many 
other species, the true wild bird lias a very game, 
thoroughbred look compared with the tame one, being 
very tight in plumage, with a lean, game head, and 
comparatively small feet, a light body free from 
paunchiness, and long wings reaching nearly to the end 
of the tail. The general colour should be pencilled drab- 
grey, produced by fine brown lines on white ; the head 
brilliant metallic green, the breast chocolate, and the 
rump, four curly centre tail feathers, and stern velvety 
green-black ; the wings, plain drab vvith a steel-blue bar 
edged with white fore and aft. A white collar, which 
should be narrow, separates the green neck from the 
breast, not meeting behind ; and the pale drab tail 
shades into white at the edges. The lining of the wing 
is also white, and, with these exceptions, no plain white 
should be seen, nor any rustv tinge. The bill is 
yellowish green, and the feet orange with darker webs. 
The duck to match should be dun laced with dark 
brown, with feet and wings like the drake’s, and a 
black bill with a broad orange tip. In undress the 
drake will be like her, but darker generally, and black 
on crown and rump. I think young drakes fledge off 
into this plumage, not exactly into the duck’s, and I am 
inclined to believe that this is the case with other young 
drakes of this section also. But this is a point on which 
naturalists give us little information, and this must 
therefore, as in so many eases, be left for fanciers to 
supply. 
The Mallard is one of several ducks which can give 
the northern hemisphere generally as their address, and 
judiciously resides in temperate climates, and visits 
the hot and cold ones as a migrant only in winter and 
summer respectively. He is omnivorous, like other 
ducks, but has the credit of being an exceptionally 
enterprising and energetic feeder, and also of being as 
good as any to eat. He is, as most people know, the 
ancestor of our tame breeds of ducks, with the excep- 
tion of the Muscovy, and was domesticated compara- 
tively late, since a Roman writer at about the beginning 
of the Christian era recommends that ducks be kept in 
enclosures, netted overhead, lest they fly away, and 
that the stock be augmented by taking the eggs of 
wild birds and setting them under hens — so that ducks 
then were apparently no more tame than pheasants 
now. 
The wild duck, however, is very easily domesticated, 
and, indeed, degenerates as an ornamental bird in a few 
generations, becoming heavier and less neatly marked, 
coarser in the feet, and shorter in the wing ; so that for 
purposes of ornament it is best to get undoubtedly wild 
birds to start with, and renew the stock when they 
show symptoms of deteriorating. And few ducks are 
more handsome than your true Mallard ; moreover, he 
is a good-natured bird with others — rather too much so, 
in fact, for though, like other ducks, naturally mono- 
gamous, he is apt to become a regular Turk when 
tamed, so that it is as well to allow him more than one 
mate. It is a curious thing that in its hybrids the Mal- 
lard seems very prepotent where colour is concerned, 
although the other parent gives the shape. I have seen 
this in crosses with such distinct species as the Pintail, 
Widgeon, Muscovy, Sheldrake, and Red-crested Pochard. 
Of domestic breeds of the Mallard only three demand 
mention in this connection : the grey and white Call 
Ducks and the so-called East Indian. 
CALL DUCK. 
(Anas boscas var.) 
These should be as small as possible, with a short 
broad bill and rounded forehead or stop. There are two 
varieties, white, which should have a yellow bill, and 
grey, which is like the Rouen in colour, i.e., closely 
resembling the Mallard. I have never, however, seen 
the grey Call Duck, and do not know whether the 
female should be dark brown in colouring like the 
Rouen duck, which is darker than the wild colour. Call 
Ducks used formerly, at all events, to be esteemed for 
the loquacity <>f the females, which was useful in 
enticing the wild birds to the decoys, whence the name. 
The drake, however, lias a weak quack like the Mallard, 
which, as everyone knows, has a very poor voice com- 
pared to his mate. There is not much point in Call 
Ducks, so far as I can see nowadays, when we have the 
many beautiful birds I am dealing with in the present 
series more or less in domestication, with many more 
nearly or quite untried. It should be mentioned that 
they can fly like wild birds. 
EAST INDIAN DUCK. 
Anas boscas var.) 
This breed, also called Buenos Ayres, though appa- 
rently with no reason in either case, resembles the wild 
bird in form and power of flight, but should be smaller, 
in fact as small as possible, even down to two pounds. 
The plumage is black with a splendid gloss of green and 
purple, looking as if the drake’s metallic hues on neck 
and wing had spread all over the bodv. The duck, 
although she should be as glossy as possible, is naturally 
less so than the drake, and she has a black bill, while 
his is olive-green ; both have black feet. This is un- 
doubtedly a very lovely breed, although apt to show 
white feathers with age ; but I must say that I think it 
is a pity both it and the Call Ducks were ever invented, 
as they tend to mongrelise the Mallard, and no doubt to 
