THE MALLARD
The mallard is a cosmopolitan, the wild duck of the world, the progenitor of the domestic duck, and the chief water fowl of the game preserve. Its eggs and flesh formed a considerable part of the food of Indians and early settlers. Vast numbers of mallards formerly bred not only in Canada and Alaska, but in the western United States. Tons and tons of these birds were killed for their feathers by Indians and halfbreeds in the South and West. Boats loaded to the gunwales, wagons piled with ducks, to be given away; tons of birds spoiled before they could be shipped, then hauled out and dumped into the coulées; markets glutted and marketmen unable to handle the birds,—these were all episodes of the time of plenty. The result of this appalling waste, and the settlement of a large part of their breeding grounds, has been a tremendous decrease in the number of mallards in the country; but the birds may be readily replaced by protection and artificial propagation, and the mallard is not in any immediate danger of extinction.
BLACK DUCKS
The birds are gathering to feed.
It nests in marsh or slough wherever it is undisturbed. The little ones, when hatched, soon reach shallow water, where they are perfectly at home. They swim about the sedge and water plants, catching insects, and when danger threatens keep concealed and sheltered by the herbage. They are often in peril, not only from hawks, owls, eagles, gulls, and herons, foxes, minks, and dogs, but they are attacked on all sides in their own element. Great frogs and fish spring to seize them with open mouths. Turtles prey upon them, and in the South alligators devour many. When a dog scents the little family in shoal waters and rushes in, the mother throws herself in his way and flutters off as if sorely wounded. While he chases her eagerly, his open mouth close to her tail, the little ones dive and swim away, more under water than above it, and, leaving the slough, crawl through the grass to the next refuge, hiding there safely until all danger is passed. Inherited experience has taught them the way of life, that their species may be perpetuated.