This is at once our commonest and most beautiful Duck. Owing to drainage of fen-lands and higher cultivation it is, perhaps, not so abundant as formerly, yet there are few marshes or low-lying lands of any extent in our islands, which do not afford a home to a few pairs of this species. It feeds chiefly by night on worms, aquatic insects, water weeds, and grain, and prefers ditches overgrown with weeds or shallow ponds to open stretches of deep water. Early in March it chooses a nesting site, usually on the ground and at no great distance from water, but exceptionally it has been known to nest in trees, faggots, stacks, and other elevated places. No nest is formed, but a cup-shaped hollow is scraped out, which is warmly lined with down after incubation commences. The eggs, usually ten to twelve in number, are pale greenish yellow, and are always carefully covered up by the Duck on leaving the nest. They hatch after twenty-seven days’ incubation, and the young are then taken to the nearest water, on or near which they remain for about two months till they can fly. If, however, they are much disturbed they will be led away by their mother to a neighbouring piece of water, often at some considerable distance. In a wild state the Mallard, as the male of this species is called, is strictly monogamous, and during the whole of incubation he will remain in the vicinity of the nest, warning his mate of the approach of danger, and accompanying her when she comes off to feed. Once the young are hatched he retires to some secluded and sheltered piece of water, where he assumes a dull plumage, somewhat resembling that of the female. During this period he becomes very skulking, rarely showing himself on the open water. When his dull or “eclipse” plumage has been assumed, he casts all his flight feathers at once, and for a short time becomes incapable of flight. These grow again in about a fortnight, and then in September he begins to assume his brilliant colours once more, and comes from his secluded retreat to join his comrades. In the winter they gather in large flocks, which resort to open sheets of water or the sea, flighting every evening to the marshes and shore to feed, and retiring again at daybreak to rest on the water. [Illustration: MALLARD OR WILD DUCK _Anas boschas_]