(Anas boschas)
The mallard is possibly the best known duck in America, it being found
in greater or less numbers everywhere from the Arctic to Central
America. It is a resident species throughout the Pacific Coast,
breeding on the mountain lakes and streams from Mexico to Alaska, and
even to a considerable extent on the lower marshes of California,
Oregon and Washington. On the fresh water ponds and overflows they
congregate in great numbers during the winter months and a bag limit
of twenty is no uncommon thing. Like all of the fresh-water ducks of
this Coast, they, too, are often found in considerable numbers on the
tide lands and salt marshes.
The mallard of the Pacific Coast can hardly be said to be a migratory
duck, for it breeds from Mexico north. Its migrations consisting more
of altitudinal movements than of longitudinal. While it breeds on the
mountain lakes of Mexico, it is rarely seen in the higher altitudes
during the winter months.
Hybrids between the mallard and the pin-tail and the mallard and the
widgeon have been occasionally met with on the marshes of the Coast.
This is most likely caused by the mating of cripples that had not the
strength to make the flight to their usual breeding grounds.
=Color=--Male--Head and neck, dark green with a metallic luster;
white ring around the neck at the bottom of the green; back, gray;
breast, chestnut brown; under parts dirty white; tail, black with two
feathers curled upwards; speculum, (see diagram) purple, bordered with
black and white.
Female--Head, dark buff; breast, lighter buff with brown mottlings;
legs, orange colored; speculum same as the male; bill, yellow,
blotched with brown.
=Nest and Eggs=--The nest is placed on the ground and lined with
grass, feathers and down. The eggs number eight to a dozen and are of
a greenish tinge.
=Measurements=--Male--Total length, from 20 to 25 inches; wing, 10 to
12 inches; bill, 2-1/2 inches.
Female--Total length, from 18 to 20 inches; wing, 9 to 10 inches;
bill, 2 to 2-1/4 inches.
[Illustration: GADWALL (Anas strepera)]