THE MALLARD. 
139 
The male of this species has a large flat bony labyrinth on 
the bottom of the windpipe, very much like that of the can- 
vass-back, but smaller ; over one of its concave sides is spread 
an exceeding thin transparent skin, or membrane. The intes- 
tines are of great width, and measure six feet in length. 
THE MALLARD — ANAS BOSCHAS — Plate LXX. Fig. 7. 
Lath. Srjn. iii. p. ^QQ.^Bewich, ii. p. 291 Le Canard sauvage, Briss. vi. p. 318. 
4. — Buff. ix. p. 415. pi. 7, 8. — Beale's Museum, No. 2864. 
BOSCHAS OR— Willoughby. 
Anas bosclias, Linn. Syst. — Gmel. i. p. 538. — Bonap. Synop. p. 382 Flem. 
Br. Anim. p. 123. — Le canard sauvage, Temm. Man. p. 385 Wild-duck, 
Mont. Ornith. Diet. ii. and Supp. — Common wild- duck, Selby Illust.Br. Ornith. 
pi. 5. Anas (bosekas) domestica. North. Zool, ii. p. 442. 
The mallard, or common wild-drake, is so universally known 
as scarcely to require a description. It measures twenty-four 
* This well-known species becomes interesting, when considered as the stock 
whence the most flourishing duckeries of the poultry-yard have sprung ; it is 
most amply spread over Europe and America, and I have received it from 
India. Universally known, it is esteemed for the table, and will fetch a higher 
price in the markets than most of the others in this country, and in America 
seems only surpassed by the canvass-back. In structure and general economy, 
it presents a most interesting form, combining the peculiarities of the pelagic and 
more terrestrial. It will live and find a sustenance in the sea and its coasts, by 
lakes and rivers, and in the midst of extensive moors and fens ; it possesses a 
powerful frame, and its wings are adapted to strong flight ; it can derive its sus- 
tenance either from the waters or themoi’e inland pastures and cultivated fields; 
it is an expert diver when necessity calls it ; and its breeding places are chosen 
by the sides of lakes and marshes, on the stumps of aged trees like the summer 
duck, and on precipitous cliffs. In the latter situation, I once took the nest of a 
wild-duck within ten yards’ distance from that of a peregrine falcon. It was situ=> 
ated on a projecting knoll of heather, jutting from an ivied cliff, and the tenants 
must often have seen each other in their passage to and from their precious de- 
posits. In this species we have the type of the genus Boschas. The centre feathers 
of the tail are lengthened, but assume a different form, in being regularly rolled 
