.4. boschas, Lin. &c. Wild Duck, or Mallard. Ci nereous ; middle tail feathers of the male recurved; bill straight; collar white. Length twenty-two, or twenty three inches, extent of wing two feet ten inches, and weight about two pounds and a half. The female is of a more sober brown hue, as are the young males before their first moult. But there are several varieties, which we cannot stop to paticularize, and those produced by domes tication arc not readily reducible to any intelligible cata logue. Inhabits Europe, Asia, and America, frequenting the marshes and lakes of the north, &c. and migrating southward in large bodies in autumn, when they spread themselves over the lakes and humid wastes of the more temperate latitudes. Considerable squadrons of them return northward in the spring; but many straggling pairs, as well as former colonists, remain with us throughout the year, and become permanent residents in the marshy tracts of the British islands. Large flocks visit Egypt in November after the inundation of the Nile. In the oppo site direction of the globe, one of their great resorts in winter is to the Loch of Stennes, and other lakes in Ork ney, and, when these happen to be frozen, they betake themselves to the shores of the islands. In these districts they may be seen in great multitudes, and, on the report of a gun, they rise like clouds. They likewise abound about the subterranean lake Crickniz, in Carniola; and they are often swallowed entire by the huge pikes which frequent that singular piece of water. On the approach of a storm, they issue from the caverns of the rocks, and fly about in the country, where they soon become a prey to the peasants. Many of them are killed with clubs at the very .opening of the cavities, being dazzled by the light of day. In no part of this island do they omit' in greater profusion than in Lincolnshire, where prodigious num bers are usually taken in the decoys. Thus, within the compass of ten stations in the neighbourhood of Wainfleet, 31,200 have been captured in the course of a single sea son.
Wild ducks are naturally very shy, fly at a considerable height in the air, and in the form of inclined lines or tri angles. Before alighting on any spot, they describe seve ral turns round it, as if to reconnoitre it, descending with precaution ; and, when they swim, keeping at a distance from the shore. When most of them rest, or sleep on the water, with their head concealed under one of their wings, some of the band are always awake to watch for the com mon safety, and to sound the alarm on the approach of danger. Hence they are with difficulty surprised, and hence the fowler who goes in pursuit of them requires to exert all his cunning, and frequently no inconsiderable de gree of toil and patience. Like other swimming birds, they rise vertically from the water, and with a loud noise, while their hissing reveals their flight in the night-time, when they are more active than during the day. They generally leave their liquid residence about half an hour before sunset, and travel and feed in the dark, those which are observed in the day-time having been for the most part roused by the sportsman, or some bird of prey. Dur
ing frost they repair to the outskirts of forests to pick up acorns, of which they are very fond ; or else they attack the green corn. When the stagnant waters begin to be covered with ice, they shift their quarters to flowing rivers, or springs; and they seem to brave the severest cold without inconvenience, quitting our climates when the weather begins to get warm, and covering the lakes and rivers of Lapland, Siberia, Greenland, Spitzbergen, &c. They breed only once in the year, the pairing time commencing about the end of February or the beginning of March, and lasting three weeks, during which period each couple live apart, concealed among the reeds and rushes during the greater part of the day. They are ar dent in their courtships, and tenderly solicitious of the comfort and protection of their offspring. The female usually selects a thick tuft of rushes, insulated in a pool, or lake, for her breeding station, and bends, cuts, and ar ranges the rushes, in the form of a nest, which she lines with down, plucked from her own belly. On other oc casions, however, she prefers heaths, at some distance from water, a rick of straw in the fields, or even the de serted nest of a magpie, or crow, on a high tree. An in stance has. been recorded of a female wild duck, found at Etchingham, in Sussex, sitting on nine eggs, in an oak, at twenty-five feet from the ground, the eggs being sup ported by some small twigs laid crossways. The eggs frequently amount to sixteen, are very obtuse and sphe roidal, with a hard and whitish shell, and the yolk verg ing on red. The incubation lasts thirty days; and, when the female goes to feed, she covers the eggs with some of her own down. On returning, she alights at some dis tance from the nest, and approaches it by winding paths, which indicates her slyness and her suspicion of being dis covered, but, having resumed her seat, she is not easily induced to quit it. The male all the while keeps watch near the nest, or accompanies and protects his mate in her temporary excursions for food. All the young- are hatched on the same day ; and, on the following, the mo ther issues from the nest, and calls them to the water ; or, if the nest be too high, or at a distance from water, both parents convey them, one by one, in their bill ; a'nd they are no sooner consigned to the stream than they begin to feed on insects, swimming about with the greatest ease. At night the mother collects them about the rushes, and covers them with her wings. In three months they are able to fly, and, in three more, they acquire their complete growth and plumage. The moulting of the mature birds is sometimes so sudden, that they lose all the wing fea thers in the course of a single night. The males under go this natural process after pairing, and the females after bringing their brood from the nest. Of all the properties which the ancients attributed to the wild duck, the most genuine is the superior excellence of its flesh, which is more delicate and juicy, and of a finer flavour, than that of the domestic ; and the birds, in consequence, are cap tured by various ingenious contrivances in almost every civilized country.