ANATINiE. ANAS. 
165 
oblong ; wings of moderate length and breadth, pointed ; 
the second quill longest ; the first little shorter ; inner se- 
condaries elongated, oblong, broad, rather pointed ; tail 
short, much rounded, of eighteen or twenty acute feathers. 
The males are larger and differently coloured. The food 
consists of seeds and other vegetable substances, worms, in- 
sects, reptiles, and small fishes. The nest is placed on the 
ground, and the eggs are numerous, white, or greenish. 
245. Anas Boschas. Mallard Duck. 
Male with the bill greenish-yellow ; the feet orange ; the 
head and upper part of the neck glossy deep green ; a narrow 
white collar ; the lower part of the neck and a portion of the 
breast dark brownish-chestnut; lower parts greyish-white, 
very minutely undulated with grey ; fore part of the back 
brown ; scapulars grey and brown, minutely undulated ; 
hind part of the back black ; wings brownish-grey ; speculum 
bluish-green and purple, margined before and behind with 
black and white ; tail feathers twenty, brownish-grey, broad- 
ly edged with white, the four medial recurved, reduplicate, 
compressed, and black. Female smaller, with the bill green- 
ish-grey ; the feathers of the upper parts dusky-brown, edged 
with pale reddish ; the throat whitish ; the lower parts grey- 
ish-yellow, streaked and spotted with dusky; the speculum 
as in the male ; the medial tail feathers straight. Young like 
the female. 
Male, 24, 35, 11, 2 T 4 ? , Iff, 2, T V Female, 22, 33. 
This species, the original of our domestic duck, occurs in 
variable numbers in all parts of the country, being more 
abundant in marshy and thinly peopled districts. In winter 
it for the most part removes from the higher grounds to the 
hollows and level tracts, and in frosty weather betakes itself 
to the shores of estuaries and even of the open sea. It is 
chiefly at night that it searches for its food, which consists of 
seeds, grasses, roots, mollusca, insects, small fishes, and small 
reptiles. The nest is placed on the ground, in rare instances 
on trees. The eggs, from four to ten, are greenish-white, two 
inches and a quarter in length, an inch and nine-twelfths in 
breadth. The young swim and dive with great activity from 
the first. The flesh being in great request, vast numbers are 
caught in decoys, and more shot. It being more numerous 
in winter than in summer, there is probably an autumnal 
