beinj^ covered with stiffish clown and quite alert, accompany their mother to the water, where they swim 
and dive as expertly as if they had been born in it.” 
In autumn, winter, and spring’ the Mallard is clothed in the style of plumage represented in the front figure 
of the accompanying plate ; but the latter season being passed and reproduction achieved, his finery is 
exchanged for a sombre dress of various shades of brown, the beautifully curled feathers on his rump 
are thrown off, and his appearance so closely resembles that of the female that they are scarcely 
distinguishable one from the other. This summer-plumage of the Drake is carried while the Duck 
hatches forth her young ; so that father, mother, and chicks, on the latter assuming their first feathers, 
are all very much alike in appearance. A change, however, soon takes place in the plumage of the Drakes, 
who assume a characteristic dress, which, as before stated, is carried through the winter and spring. 
The change in the plumage of the Mallard is thus characteristically described by the late Mr. Waterton 
from personal observation : — 
“At the close of the breeding-season the drake undergoes a very remarkable change of plumage. On 
viewing it, all speculation on the part of the ornithologist is utterly confounded ; for there is not the 
smallest clue afforded him by which he may be enabled to trace out the cause of this strange phenomenon. 
To Him, alone, who has ordered the Ostrich to remain on the earth, and allowed the Bat to range through 
the etherial vault of heaven, is known why the Drake for a very short period of the year should be so 
completely clothed in the raiment of the female that it requires a keen and penetrating eye to distinguish 
the one from the other. About the 24th of May the breast and back of the drake exhibit the first 
appearance of a change of colour. In a few days after this the curled feathers above the tail drop out, and 
grey feathers begin to appear amongst the loA^ely green plumage which surrounds the eyes. Every 
succeeding day now brings marks of rapid change. By the 23rd of June scarcely one single green feather 
is to be seen on the head and neck of the bird. By the 6th of July every feather of the former brilliant 
plumage has disappeared, and the male has reeeived a garb like that of the female, though of a somewhat 
darker tint. In the early part of August this new plumage begins to drop off gradually; and by the 10th of 
October the drake will appear again in all his rich magnificence of dress, than which scarcely any thing 
throughout the whole wide field of nature can be seen more lovely or better arranged to charm the eye 
of man. Thus we may say that once every year, for a very short period, the drake goes, as it were, into an 
eclipse, so that, from the early part of the month of July to about the first week of August, neither in the 
poultry-yards of civilized man nor through the vast expanse of nature’s widest range can there he found a 
drake in that plumage which at all other seasons of the year is so remarkably splendid and diversified.” 
The situation of the nest is exceedingly varied, being sometimes placed among the reeds at the edge of 
the water the birds frequent ; at others it is constructed far up on the heath or in the forest, and not 
unfrequently on the head of a pollard oak or willow, in a hollow of the hare ground, in the midst of a 
tussock of grass, under a stone, &c. The composition of the nest is as varied as its site, being in some 
instances a bulky mass rudely constructed of flags, sedges, grasses. See., at others of grass intermixed and 
lined with feathers and down. The eggs are from six to ten in number, rather larger and longer than 
those of the common fowl, and of a dull light greenish stone-colour. The chicks immediately after their 
exclusion from the eggs are exceeding alert, have all their energies perfect, and readily seek for, and obtain, 
their insect food both on the land and on the water, and hide themselves, on the approach of a fancied enemy, 
with great facility among the herbage or any other object that may offer seclusion and safety ; indeed, at 
this period of their existence their shyness is most remarkable, a disposition not readily effaced if an attempt 
be made towards their domestication, either when hatched by a tame Duck, or by their frequent foster- 
parent, the ordinary fowl. 
The Mallard frequently interbreeds with the Pintail, the Muscoa^ Duck, and other species, the produce 
being sometimes twice the weight of those from which they spring: thus in December, 1862, the late 
Earl of Craven sent me two birds, the product of a cross betAveen the Mallard and the Pintail, which 
weighed, the one 6 Ihs. 3oz., the other 6 lbs. Of course these enormously heavy Ducks vA^ere domesti- 
cated and not wild birds. The Aveights of two Avild Mallards I killed at Somerleyton, in fair hut not 
extraordinary condition, Avere respectively 2 lbs. 11 oz. and 2 lbs. 15 oz. 
It is quite unnecessary for me to speak of the excellence of this bird as a viand for the table, or the 
usefulness of its feathers, since both are so generally knoAA'ii that they need not be commented upon ; 
neither need I attempt to describe the Awious modes of capturing the bird on its arrival in this country by 
means of nets, decoys, &;c. ; those who desire information on these points will find them admirably 
described and illustrated in the Rev. Richard Lubbock’s ‘ Observations on the Fauna of Norfolk.’ 
The figures are a trifle smaller than the natural size, with a flight of these birds in the distance. 
