Part 59

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The pintail, although not so handsomely coloured as the shoveler, mallard, wigeon, and teal, is the most elegant of the freshwater ducks, being slim and graceful in form, with the two slender middle feathers of the tail greatly elongated. Sea-pheasant is one of its local names, but the same name is sometimes given to the long-tailed duck (Harelda glacialis) on the north-east coast. The pintail is a winter visitor only to the British Islands, appearing in October, and is most common on the south coast. It is found in small flocks, and prefers shallow waters with muddy bottoms, and feeds on aquatic weeds, insects, and crustaceans. It is always most abundant near the shore, but is also met with on inland waters. It has a rapid flight, and is a comparatively silent bird by day; its cry by night is a low quack, and in spring, during courtship, the drake utters soft and inward notes, which he accompanies with some curious gestures and antics. The pintail breeds freely in a semi-domestic state, and lays seven to ten eggs, pale buffish green in colour.

Mallard, or Wild Duck.

Anas boscas.

Bill yellowish; head and neck glossy green, followed by a white ring; hind neck and breast deep chestnut; across the secondaries a greenish purple speculum, bordered above and below with white: rump, upper tail-coverts, and the four middle curled tail-feathers black; the rest of the tail-feathers grey; flanks and belly greyish white; under tail-coverts velvet-black; legs and feet orange-red. Length, two feet. Female: smaller; bill greenish; crown dark brown; general plumage mottled brown and buff; speculum green.

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The mallard is the most common and best-known freshwater duck in Britain, and is a resident species, breeding in suitable localities throughout the country; but the birds that breed and remain all the year are few in number compared to the migrants that come to us in winter from more northern regions. In the domestic state the mallard is, next to the fowl, the most abundant and familiar bird we possess. The tame duck differs from the mallard only in its heavier body and shorter wings, and in being polygamous instead of monogamous in its habits. The tendency to vary in colour is a result of domestication in all species. It was from observing the annual change in the plumage of the domestic drake that the discovery was made that ducks differ from other birds in the manner of their moult. The period of the moult does not coincide in the drake and duck; and this discrepancy in the sexes has caused ducks to differ in their breeding habits from all other birds. Thus, in most birds, male and female share the labours of incubation, and of rearing and protecting the young; and the moult, which is always a period of danger, during which the bird is obliged to go into hiding, takes place some time after the young are able to shift for themselves--in other words, the family tie is broken after it has ceased to be necessary; and the female of the mallard, and of other ducks, moult in this way. Not so the male. He is smitten by the change after the eggs are all laid and incubation begun; with the result that the marriage tie is dissolved just at the period when his help is most needed. This is one of the strangest things in bird history; for up to the time when the physical change begins the drake is not less loving and solicitous than any other male bird, and if by chance the moulting period is delayed, he continues to guard the nest and share the labours of incubation; so that we may say, without straining a metaphor, that the drake is forcibly torn away from his marital duties, just as the late-breeding swift or swallow is sometimes forced by an overpowering migratory instinct to abandon its helpless young in the nest. The action of the swift in leaving its helpless young to perish of starvation in the nest is painful to contemplate, since we are accustomed to look on the parental affection as the most powerful of all; and in this case there is a conflict between this emotion and another--the desire for another climate; and the last conquers, and the young are forsaken. In the drake it is not a case of a conflict between two emotions or two instincts, but of a physical change, which kills or makes nugatory the instinct and emotion; for it is certain that the moulting period in all species that, like the duck, change their whole plumage in a short time, is not only a period of danger, but of suffering. When the change comes the bird acts like the ‘stricken deer,’ and like animals afflicted with some fatal disease: he goes apart, and remains in hiding until his new plumage has grown, and with renewed health his social instincts are restored. It is only in the case of the male duck that this change from health and strength to sickness and impotence falls in the midst of the breeding season.

Another extraordinary fact about the moulting of the drake is that, in moulting, he puts on the dress of the female. The moult is complete, but only after the whole of the small feathers have been changed are the wing- and tail-feathers shed, and as these are all shed at once, the bird is for some time incapable of flight. But while in this incapable condition he is no longer a drake in appearance--a bird of rich and conspicuous colouring--but has a dull mottled brown like the duck. This annual ‘eclipse,’ as Waterton called it, lasts for three or four months; and then there is a second, autumnal moult, of the body-feathers only, in which the rich colours of the male sex are recovered.

The duck, in the meantime, moults only once in the year.

A slight difference has been noted between the resident mallard that breeds in the British Islands and the mallard from the north that visits us in winter, the native bird being heavier.

Gadwell.

Chaulelasmus streperus.

Beak lead-colour; head and upper neck light brown with darker mottlings; back marked with crescents of light grey on a dark ground; median wing-coverts chestnut; greater coverts blackish; primaries brown; secondaries brown and black, the outer webs forming a white speculum; rump and upper tail-coverts bluish black; tail-feathers dark brown with pale edges; lower neck dark grey, each feather with a pale grey margin; breast and belly white; flanks and vent grey; under tail-coverts bluish black; legs and feet orange. Length, twenty-one inches. Female: head and upper neck light brown mottled with dark; lower hind neck and upper parts brown; speculum and under parts white.

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The gadwell most nearly resembles the mallard, but is not so richly coloured, and is smaller in size. It is a widely distributed species, ranging over a greater portion of the northern hemisphere. In the British Islands it is a winter visitor in small numbers, very few pairs remaining to breed, except in one locality in Norfolk, where it has been strictly protected for the last forty years, with the result that it breeds regularly, and is abundant. Elsewhere it is the rarest of the British freshwater ducks. The wings are long and sharply pointed, and the flight exceedingly rapid. When flying it frequently utters its cry, which resembles that of the mallard, but is shriller in tone. Like the mallard, it is a night feeder; during the daylight hours it usually remains concealed in the closest cover. Its nest, lined with dry grass and a quantity of down, is placed on the ground at some distance from the waterside. Eight to twelve buffish white eggs are laid.

Garganey.

Querquedula circia.

Bill black; forehead, crown, nape, and back dark brown; from the eye a white stripe extending to the back of the neck; cheeks and neck light brown with short hair-like lines of white; scapulars black, with central white stripe; wing-coverts bluish grey; speculum green between two bars of white; primaries and tail dull brown; chin black; breast pale brown with dark crescentic bands; belly white; flanks with transverse black lines; under tail-coverts black and white; legs and feet greyish brown. Length, sixteen inches. Female: mottled brown; stripe over the eye yellowish white; speculum dull metallic green between two white bars.

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The garganey, or summer teal, or cricket teal, as it is sometimes called, on account of the low, jarring note of the male in the pairing season, differs considerably from its nearest relation, the common teal, both in its larger size and its colouring, which a little resembles that of the shoveler. It is an early spring visitor to the British Islands, rare in England, and still rarer in Scotland and Ireland. It remains to breed in suitable localities in this country, and is perhaps most common in the district of the Broads in Norfolk. It flies swiftly, and utters on the wing a sharp, quacking cry, sometimes repeated twice. Its feeding habits are similar to those of the teal, but it is not esteemed a good bird for the table. The nest is made among the coarse grass and herbage in swampy ground; eight or nine creamy white eggs are laid sometimes a larger number.

Teal.

Querquedula crecca.

Bill blackish; crown, cheeks, neck, and throat chestnut; round and behind the eye an elongated patch of glossy green margined with buff; upper parts and flanks delicately marked with black and white; speculum black, green, and purple, tipped with yellowish white; rump and tail-coverts black; tail-feathers brown; front of neck spotted with black on a buff ground; breast and belly white; legs and feet brownish grey. Length, fourteen inches and a half. Female: mottled brown; little or no purple on the speculum. The female dress is assumed by the drake in July, and is kept until October.

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The handsome and natty little teal is the smallest of our ducks, its weight being only one third that of the mallard. In appearance it is a small wigeon, but whereas the wigeon is the wildest of our wild ducks in disposition, the teal is the tamest. It is chiefly a winter visitor to this country, and from September until spring is found throughout the British Islands. A considerable number of pairs remain to breed in suitable localities throughout England, and more numerously in Scotland and Ireland. The nest is placed on the ground on the borders of a marsh or bog, and sometimes at a distance from water, among heather or herbage; it is made of dry grass and leaves, and, later on, down from the bird is added. The eggs are creamy-white or pale buff in colour, with a tinge of green, and eight or ten in number, sometimes as many as fifteen. The teal feeds chiefly by night, on aquatic plants, insects, slugs, and small crustaceans. Its call-note is a short, sharp quack, and in the pairing-time the drake emits a low, jarring note. The drake does not moult so early as most ducks, and remains longer with the female during the breeding season, leaving her only when the young are partly grown.

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Two American species of teal--the blue-winged teal (Querquedula discors) and the green-winged teal (Q. carolinensis)--have been obtained in Great Britain, one specimen of each.

Shoveler.