306 
SWIMMERS. 
at length urged into the net, sometimes in such quantities 
that five or six dozen have been taken out at one drift. 
The food of the Wild Duck is small fish, fry, snails, aquatic 
insects and plants, as well as seeds and most sorts of grain. In 
the severity of winter, if the standing waters become frozen, 
these birds remove to running rivers and resort to the edge of 
woods in quest of acorns or other suitable food; but if the 
frost continues for eight or ten days they disappear, and do 
not return till the early thaws of the spring. 
The Mallard is a rare bird in New England and the Provinces, 
but it is quite common in western Ontario and Manitoba, and 
elsewhere throughout North America, breeding from about latitude 
47° northward. 
Nuttall’s statement that many of these birds pass the greater part 
of the winter in Greenland has been questioned, though European 
naturalists have been aware that the Mallards were influenced to 
migrate more by the absence of open water than by change of 
temperature. Mr. Hagerup has confirmed Nuttall’s statement 
lately by reporting that in south Greenland the Mallards “are 
common the whole year round, but most numerous in winter, when 
they keep in small flocks along the shore.” 
