546 
MALLARD. 
The spot generally chosen by these birds for the 
purpose of incubation, is a thick tuft of rushes in 
the middle of a marsh, and here the female forms 
her nest, by pressing down the rushes till they take 
the required shape. In this nest she lays from ten 
to fifteen eggs, after having lined it with the down 
which she pulls from her body. The incubation 
lasts thirty days ; and within twenty-four hours 
after the young are hatched the mother quits the 
nest, and calls them to the water. But, timorous, 
chilly, and totally unused to the element, they re- 
fuse to enter till some of the boldest plunge after 
their parent, and then the rest soon follow. They 
pass through their different stages of growth precisely 
like the tame species, and continue the same awk- 
ward misshapen creatures till they have acquired their 
full plumage. The common tame ducks originate 
from these ; and the drakes , however they may vary 
in colours, always retain the curled feathers in the 
tail. 
The county from whence we chiefly derive our 
wild ducks is Lincolnshire, in the fenny parts of 
which the inhabitants make a decoy, and, if pos- 
sible, choose a pond surrounded with wood, that 
the birds may be well sheltered, and remain free 
from noise, or any disturbance that might tend to 
frighten them away. 
The intelligent Mr. Pennant has collected some 
curious information respecting the catching of wild 
fowl. He informs us that as soon as the evening’ 
sets in, the decoy rises, as they term it, and the 
