THE WIDGEON. 
601 
at a distance mere lines with black points, and occupy more than one-half their whole length ; 
their heavy bodies, and triangular wings, seeming but mere appendages to the prolonged body 
in front.” 
The Swan, when migrating, with a moderate wind in favor, probably travels at the rate of 
an hundred miles an hour. 
When feeding, and dressing their feathers, Swans make a great outcry, and can be heard 
several miles. Their notes are extremely varied : some closely resembling a deep bass of a 
common tin horn, while others run through a variation of the French horn. It is said that 
these birds require live or six years for maturity. Bewick’s Swan is sometimes found in this 
country. 
The Ettkopeah Swan ( Olor cygnus ) is also a straggler here. 
The beautiful Mahdabih Duck is worthy of heading the true Ducks, for a more magnifi- 
cently clothed bird can hardly be found when the male is in health, and in his full nuptial 
plumage. 
These birds are natives of China, and are held in such esteem that they can hardly be 
obtained at any price, the natives having a singular dislike to seeing their birds pass into the 
possession of Europeans. “A gentleman,” writes Dr. Bennett, “very recently wrote from 
Sydney to China, requesting some of these birds to be sent to him. The reply was, that from 
the present disturbed state of China, it would be easier to send him a pair of mandarins than 
a pair of Mandarin Ducks.” This bird has the power of perching, and it is a curious sight to 
watch them perched on the branches of trees overhanging the pond in which they live, the 
male and female being always close together, the one gorgeous in purple, green, white, and 
chestnut, and the other soberly apparelled in brown and gray. 
This handsome plumage of the male is lost during four months of the year, i. <?., from 
May to August, when the bird throws off his fine crest, his wing-fans, all his brilliant colors, 
and assumes a sober tinted dress resembling that of his mate. The Summer Duck of America 
(Aix sponsa ) bears a close resemblance to the Mandarin Duck, both in plumage and manners ; 
and at certain times of the year is hardly to be distinguished from that bird. The Mandarin 
Duck has been successfully reared in the Zoological Gardens, some being hatched under the 
parent bird, and others under a domestic hen, the latter hatching the eggs two days in advance 
of the former. The eggs are of a creamy-brown color. 
The crest of this beautiful Duck is varied green and purple upon the top of the head, the 
long crest-like feathers being chestnut and green. From the eye to the beak, the color is 
warm fawn, and a stripe from the eye to the back of the neck is soft cream. The sides of the 
neck are clothed with long, pointed feathers of bright russet, and the front of the neck and 
breast are' rich, shining purple. The curious wing-fans, that stand erect like the wings of a 
butterfly, are chestnut, edged with the deepest green, and the shoulders are banded with four 
stripes, two black and two white. The under surface is white. The female is simply mottled 
brown, and the young are pretty little birds, covered with downy plumage of a soft brown 
above, mottled with gray, and creamy- white below. 
The Shieldkakes, of which there are two European species, namely, the common 
Shieldrake ( Taclorna mdpanser ) and the Ruddy Shieldrake ( Casarfca rutila ), are handsome 
birds, and remarkable for the singular construction of the windpipe, which is expanded just 
at the junction of the two bronchial tubes into two very thin horny globes, one being nearly 
twice the size of the other. They are sometimes called Burrow Ducks, because they lay their 
eggs in rabbit-burrows made in sandy soil, and are often discovered by the impression of their 
feet at the entrance of the holes. The nests are made of grass, lined with down plucked from 
the breast of the parent, and the eggs are generally from ten to twelve in number. 
The well-known W idgeok is very plentiful in Europe, arriving about the end of September 
or the beginning of October, and assembling in large flocks. 
Vol. II .— 1 76. 
