78 
ANATIDvE. 
one paragraph I must make exception. I allude to that at p. 
168, where, in the imaginative strain of Buffon, the “unnatural 
barbarism” of a male is protested against as caring nothing for 
his progeny. Surely it is, instead, natural , and agreeable to the 
instinct with which the bird has been endowed, that the male 
leaves the whole charge of the young to the female. As a differ- 
ence of opinion has existed on this subject, it may be stated, in 
the words of Mr. Selby, that “ the care of the young devolves 
entirely upon the duck, and is not partaken by the male as Wil- 
son and others appear to think ; and this fact,” he observes, “ I 
have had frequent opportunities of verifying” (p. 308). Accord- 
ing to the observation of Mr. Wm. Sinclaire, at his pond at the 
Balls, where several of this species were always kept, the mallards 
never sat upon the eggs, and were not only pugnaciously disposed 
towards each other in spring, but annoyed the ducks by their 
pertinacious pursuit, sometimes even causing them to leave their 
nests. A nest here, in 1845, was made on the ground in an 
open meadow, and contained eleven eggs. On being visited seve- 
ral times in the absence of the duck, the eggs were always con- 
cealed from view, by having been covered over with mosses. 
A gentleman informs me that once when in Kensington Gar- 
dens, London, he had seen a person throw a stone at a brood of 
wild ducks that wounded one of them, when, to his surprise, the 
mother, on perceiving her young one hurt, rushed at and pecked 
it so violently as in a few minutes to deprive it of life. He saw 
an almost similar instance in St. James's Park, but the young 
was able to make a better fight, and when attacked by its mother, 
it, after a slight struggle, succeeded in freeing itself. A trivial 
incident of an opposite kind was thus noticed in Mr. Templeton's 
journal : — August 21, 1819. I was delighted, to-day, with seeing 
an instance of thought and affection in a duck. One of her 
young ones having fallen on its back in a dish of meat, the mother 
uttered a scream and ran to its assistance, and lifting it gently in 
her bill, placed it on its feet.” In the amiable light of a peace- 
maker — as separating two fighting redbreasts — a duck will be 
found noticed in the first volume of this work (p. 166). 
