112 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
In New Mexico, on Lake Burford late in September, 1903, we found 
small parties of Mallards—from two to twelve—feeding in marshy places 
and in flooded weedy bottoms where they were enjoying the rich store of 
smartweed, pigweed, and other seeds; and as they fed, the loud barnyard 
quack of an invisible female was sometimes answered quickly by the 
slazy note of the invisible drake. When out in sight, they characteris¬ 
tically stood on their heads to reach down to the water weeds, with tails 
and feet sticking up above the water, and the significance of the striking 
colors of feet and tail found in pond and river ducks seemed apparent. 
For what better means could be devised by nature for keeping mates 
together during the breeding season, and misleading enemies ready to 
swoop down upon anything but—simulated—sticks projecting above 
the surface of the water. In the case of the drake Mallard there were 
not only the black tail coverts and white tail quills which suggest the 
points of snags rather than ducks, but also spectacular bright red feet 
conspicuous above the water. 
While the Mallards are preeminently “surface-feeding ducks,” the 
three-quarters grown young, as Mr. Millais in his interesting book on the 
Surface-feeding Ducks, says, being “unable to fly, gain much of their 
food by diving.” He describes a “clever trick” used by the adults to 
bring up the worms from the mud. Sitting upright, balancing them¬ 
selves on their tails, they tread water—work their feet rapidly up and 
down until the mud is thoroughly churned up, when the worms 
“come up to find out what is going on, and are promptly swallowed for 
their pains” (1902, p. 4). By another ruse they escape an enemy over¬ 
head, lying prone on the water with neck outstretched, and if ap¬ 
proached, sinking the body until it is almost invisible. 
Although, as Doctor Wetmore says, Mallards are undemonstrative 
ducks, they have a mating flight similar to that of the Gadwall, in which 
two males and one female rise in the air together and fly along rather 
slowly, with the female flying beside first one and then the other of the 
males. In turn these swing in ahead of her and setting their wings throw 
up their heads and display their back and wing markings. During this 
performance the males call constantly, while the female quacks at in¬ 
tervals. When flushed from her eggs, I have heard a Mallard apparently 
call her mate and with him circle around overhead, gauging the danger 
before returning to the nest. When alone with her brood, one seen by 
Mr. M. P. Skinner showed surprising ingenuity in dealing with an 
enemy. The family of young were pursued by a muskrat who was 
almost upon the duckling in the rear when the mother saw the danger 
and in an instant was there $coopi?ig water with her wings into the rat’s 
face” (1925, pp. 40-41). By this remarkable device she gained time and 
although she had to drive off the pursuer twice more, she finally got the 
brood safely to shore. It is also interesting to hear from Dr. C. W. 
