MALLARD DUCKS 
Known almost the world over, the green-headed mallard duck is a regular 
migrant. With the first autumn frost, V-shaped flocks may be seen flying 
southward, and for days thereafter the air is full of their quacking. Once 
winter has set in, mallards are rarely seen in northern climes, but with 
the first approach of spring, the V-shaped lines return once more from 
the southland. 
Aside from its glossy greenish head, the mallard may be identified 
by its buff-gray color, its white neck-ring, and a violet wing-patch or specu¬ 
lum bordered before and behind with black and white. These birds were 
once the most abundant of wild fowl, but of recent years they have begun 
to grow rare as a result of their popularity among hunters, who covet them 
for their delicious flesh and the prestige derived from bringing back such 
trophies. 
Mallards are omnivorous, eating almost anything in sight, as they 
swim and paddle about the marshes. About four-fifths of their diet is vege¬ 
table, the remainder is animal. Small frogs, toads, lizards, small fishes, 
worms, mice, grasses, nuts and aquatic plants are only a few of the items on 
their menu. In some regions they are held to be most useful to man because 
of their propensity for eating the crayfish that undermine dykes. This duck’s 
broad, flattened bill is so equipped that with the aid of the tongue it can 
disengage food from the marshland mud. 
Mallards build their nests on the ground, constructing them of feathers 
and plant trash. They breed in early spring, the female laying six to ten 
greenish-yellow eggs upon which she sits for a period of four weeks. 
In summer the male bird sheds his brilliant feathers, taking on the 
more drab and inconspicuous plumage of the female. This moult is aptly 
called the “eclipse.” 
68 
