Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/310

Rh which man puts in requisition to capture by wholesale a bird so greatly prized. The principal of these are the decoys, by which immense multitudes are taken annually in the fenny counties of England. An interesting account of these, accompanied with illustrative engravings, appeared in the "Penny Magazine" for February, 1835. We have not space to describe the details, but some idea may be formed of their effectiveness, as well as of the abundance of this species, from the fact recorded by Pennant, that in one season thirty-one thousand two hundred Ducks were taken in only ten decoys in the neighbourhood of Wainfleet, in Lincolnshire.

The Mallard in a wild state, contrary to the habit of the domestic bird, always pairs: the Duck makes her nest in some dry spot in the marshes, often sheltered by rank herbage, or beneath some low bush; not seldom, however, the nest is built in the branches of a tree, or the head of a pollard, often at a considerable height from the ground; whence the parent is believed to carry down her young ones, one by one, in her beak. The eggs are usually from ten to fourteen in number, of a bluish white hue; when the Duck has occasion to leave them, she covers them carefully with down or other materials.

The Wild Duck is migratory as well as resident with us; those that have bred in this country are reinforced on the approach of winter by immense flocks of this and other species, which wing their way hither from the already frozen lakes and rivers of the more northern latitudes, whither the majority return in spring.