BIRDS. 327 
of its feathers being a greyish black. Wild Geese fly by 
night, in large flocks to more southern countries ; and 
their clang is heard from the regions of the clouds, al- 
though the birds are out of sight. 
THE DUCK. (Anas boschas.) 
THE common Duck is of two kinds, the wild and the 
tame, the latter being but the same species altered by do- 
mestication ; the difference between them is very trifling, 
save that the colour of the Mallard, or male wild Duck, is 
constantly the same in all the individuals, whereas the 
Drakes, or tame ones, are varied in their plumage. The 
females do not share with the males in beauty of plumage : 
the admirable scarf of glossy green and blue, which sur- 
rounds the neck of Drakes and Mallards, being an 
exclusive prerogative of the male sex. There is also a 
curious and invariable peculiarity belonging to the males, 
which consists of a few curled feathers rising upon the 
rump. The wild Ducks are caught by decoys in the fen 
oountries, and in such prodigious numbers, that in only 
ten decoys in the neighbourhood of Wainfleet, as many as 
thirty-one thousand two hundred have been caught in one 
season. They do not always build their nests close to the 
