THE MALLARD

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20978, 5 October 1933, Page 14

THE MALLARD

TO THE EDH'OB OP TEE PEES 9.

Sir, —I have written, an extensive report on several inspections of some five miles of the Avon and Lake Victoria, also a week's inspection of Lake Ellesmere, besides interviewing a number of sportsmen in the North Canterbury district, in regard to the Mallard. As a result I came to the conclusion it was a bird with many vices and no virtues, and that a trip through the south for further information might be a waste of time. However, I was very much heartened by two letters which appeared in the press the day before I made my start for Southland. These had nothing but praise for the Mallard and stated that it did not cross in the wild state with the Grey duck. During investigations I found that the Mallard had been crossed on the Avon, Lakes Victoria and Ellesmere, with the Rouen duck, Muscovy, and the Aylesbury, and the White Call duck, resulting in a very poor kind of duck; but in no case was I shown a duck which could be definitely classed as a cross with the Grey. All admitted that the cross was a very inferior bird to either the Mallard or the Grey and that the hybrids should be destroyed, not by shooting —it is impossible ,to distinguish the one from the other, on the wing—but by enticing them into proper decoys where purebred Greys and Mallards could. be separated from the hybrids and released, and the hybrids killed and sent to the hospital. In a very short while all the crosses could be eliminated in this way and the Mallard and Greys have a chance to continue a strain of pure breed. My visit to the Acclimatisation Societies' districts, south of North Canterbury (I made my start from Invercargill) changed my views entirely in regard to the Mallard; the trip took sorn • four or five weeks and X was fortunate in seeing both the presidents and secretaries of all the societies, besides many of the members of the various councils of the societies and many sportsmen and shooters. All were strong in their praise of the Mallard as a line sporting bird, and were emphatic that it did not cross in the wild state with the Grey. Odd crosses had been seen in some of the town sanctuaries, but all were with the common barn-door variety of duck, including the Rouen. Here again, during the whole trip, X did not see a single bird that could be definitely classed as a cross between the Mallard and the Grey. Mr Robertson, president of the Southland Acclimatisation Society, definitely stated that he was quite satisfied that in the wild state the Grey and Mallard did not interbreed, and that Mr Stead is wrong in stating that they do. He does not think, however, that liis society should go in for importing more Mallards, because the cold, wet weather in the early spring in Southland kills large numbers of the ducklings. This was especially evident during the years from 1906 to 1912, when most of the young ducklings were lost at an early stage. For this reason he thought it best to concentrate on the Grey duck in the Southland district by having a close season every third year, besides other restrictions during open seasons. To sum up the impression gained during my trip, out of the many sportsmen and others that I saw only three wefe against the Mallard., and considered it crossed with the Grey.

On my return to Christchurch I received letters from Auckland stating that Mr W. H. Wilson (of Morpeth, Gould, and Wilson) lived in Invercargill during the time the Mallard was being introduced there, and considered that the ducklings died because they were weaklings—the result of too much inbreeding, besides the fact that many of the birds were too. old to breed. Fresh wild stock was imported from England, which gave very satisfactory results, and very soon there were so many in the streams, creeks, anrf rivers between the foothills and the sea that they wer- opened for shooting. Many were shot, as the high banks hid the approach of the shooters until they were right on the birds. They were also driven backwards and forwards from creek to creek till nearly all were. wiped out. The few that remained soon became too old to breed. Mr Wilson considered it only needed new wilu blood from England, Scotland, or Ireland to bring back strong, hardy, vigorous birds, the young of which would thrive in the Southland climate, which certainly cannot be worse than the Scottish climate, . where the birds breed in thousands and. thrive well. Mallards nest and breed in hundreds of thousands in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and this stock is replenished by .migratory birds from northern climes, but there are now so many guns that have nowhere to shoot except along the sea coast and estuaries and inland harbours of the British Isles that the Mallards are being jreatly depleted. The Mallard is much sought after by the public in the large cities and towns Df the British Isles, and the open sale in markets and shops is not prohibited, rhe Mallard has such a special delisate flavour that people will pay a ligher price for it than for any other dnd of duck—tame or wild; the markets are the place to ascertain what jirds sell best. In the United States he sale of wild duck of any kind was Jrohibited, but last year Congress jassed a bill which allows Mallards o be sold by any one to the markets md shops of the big towns. This contession was given because there were o many duck breeders on large estates where wild Mallards were bred on a

largo scale for commercial purposes, but they could not be sold or purchased until this bill was passei. These estates now sell the Mallard to shooters at as to 10s each,* limiting each gun to, say, 30 or 50 each a day. If they do not shoot so many, that is their look-out—they pay for the full number just the same. Mr Stead states that Mallard and Black duck cross in the United States. There are several duclc there very similar in shape, etc.—the GradwellBlack duck (often Called black Mallard); the Mallard (often called green head); the Spoon Bill, the Shoveller, and the Pintail. All these resort to the same water and nest in the same country and localities. They have been doing this for thousands of years, but they have not mixed together -- every one has kept its own distinctive characteristics to-day as it did a thousand years ago. Of course, an odd bird may cross, but it must stop; otherwise the birds would be mixed, as the Mallards cfross with the Rouen, Muscovy, White Aylesbury, and other tame varieties on the Avon and Lake Ellesmere to-day. Mr Stead says that the Mallard is a slower bird than the, Grey and that the Grey has a more delicate, flavour. No doubt he was thinking of the crossbreds with the Rouen, White Aylesbury, and Muscovy duck on the Avon, which would be much slower than the grey and of a very poor flavour. Last year an aviator, when flying over one of the marsh districts in the South of England, startled some Mallards which he followed, and was astonished at their speed on the wing.. They kept up an average speed of 102 miles an hour. No doubt they were urged forward by fear, but that would not add more than two or three miles an hour to their speed. Several sportsmen have put the speed of the Grey at from 65 to 75 miles ah hour, and I have estimated their speed at from 75 to 85 miles an hour, but. even this is a long way short of the Mallard. It is not fair to compare the Grey speed with the Mallard, because the Mallard gains its great speed and strength of wing from its long flights to climes in the far north, where it often has to stem the northern blizzards for hours at a time, whilst the Grey seldom has a longer flight than 20 to 30 miles, and few that far ; "Interbreeding and inbreeding, mentioned by Mr Stead was deliberately used to show the inbreeding that was going on between the Rouen, Muscovy, Indian Runner, White Aylesbury, White Call duck and the Mallard, whereas "interbreeding" was used in.regard to the Mallard not interbreeding with the Grey. The proof of the pudding is in the eating thereof. At Wenderholm, near Waiwera, Major Whitney had some 160 Mallards, and these often had three nests each season. Although they did not rear all of each clutch, they reared several of each—more in the early clutches than in the later. There wer~ some very large Persian cats kept at Wenderholm, and these took a big toll of the

young ducklings. The duck got wise to it and nested in the forks of the Pohutukawa trees and in the tall pampas grass from six to 12 feet from the ground, but I was not fortunate in getting a snapshot with my camera of how the young ducklings were brought to the ground in safety.— Yours, etc., E. E. CHRISTCHURCH. October 2, 1933.