THE MANDARIN DUCK
(Æx galerita)
THE male of the mandarin duck—the mandarin drake, as it should properly be called—looks so essentially Chinese that one would almost intuitively guess that it came from China. Nevertheless, it has a near relative, and the only other member of the same genus, in North America, where it is represented by the summer duck (Æx sponsa). In this distribution these painted ducks, as they have not inaptly been called, resemble several other groups of animals, such as the true alligators (Alligator) and the spoonbeaked sturgeons (PolyodonandPsephurus), each of which has one North American and one Chinese species, although the American and Asiatic spoonbeaked sturgeons are referred to separate genera.
Ducks, it may be mentioned, are divided into two distinct sections—namely, the swimming ducks and the diving ducks; the mandarin duck and its American relative belonging to the former section, of which they form a special group, characterised by the ornate plumage of the drakes, and particularly by the broad ornamental feathers on the shoulders and the elongated plumes on the head, which form a kind of helmet, with a large flange extending backwards over the neck.
The mandarin drake is specially distinguished from the male of the summer duck by possessing a ruff on the neck formed of elongated, narrow, chestnut feathers streaked with whitish, and a chestnut and black “fan†rising up in a kind of tiger’s-claw shape on each side of the hind end of the body, and mainly formed by the broad innermost secondary feather of the wing; the helmet being copper-coloured, purple, and green, and separated by a broad white band enclosing the eye from the chestnut throat-ruff, while the beak is reddish brown. The other details of colour and pattern are sufficiently apparent in the illustration.
This gorgeous breeding-livery is, however, worn only during a portion of the year. For four months—namely, from June till September—the mandarin drake is a very ordinary-looking bird, clothed in a greyish dress, which in autumn gives place, by a second moult, to the breeding-livery, the latter lasting till the following summer. When the drake is in the non-breeding plumage, it is mainly distinguishable from the duck by its somewhat superior size. The colour of the female is chiefly grey, relieved with brown and white.
The distributional area of the mandarin duck includes northern China, Japan, and Amurland; but the species appears to be nowhere common, and in most districts is decidedly rare. In China these ducks, which are regarded as semi-sacred birds, are highly valued, and are kept in cages.
mandarin
Unlike the majority of the duck tribe, both the mandarin and the summer duck are in the habit of perching on the branches of trees, and make their nests in holes either in the branches or trunk. In this perching habit they resemble the tree-ducks of the genusDendrocycna. After lining the hole with a plentiful supply of feathers, down, and other soft material, the female lays a clutch of from seven to fifteen eggs. These she incubates herself, carefully covering them up with down every time she leaves the nest; and she likewise takes sole charge of the ducklings, from the time they are hatched till they are able to shift for themselves. When, as is frequently the case, the nest is situated over water, the ducklings throw themselves down into the water very soon after they are hatched, but in other instances they are carried in the beaks of their parents, as is the case with those of the ordinary wild duck when the nest is built above the level of the ground.
The food of these ducks, like that of many other members of the tribe, includes insects, worms, water-snails, young frogs, and other water-animals, together with the leaves and young shoots of various kinds of water-plants.
The mandarin duck is an active and untiring bird, moving quickly on the ground, and flying easily and rapidly into trees, where it flits from bough to bough with the ease and assurance of a wood-pigeon. It lives and breeds well in confinement, and may be seen in nearly all zoological gardens, as well as on many ornamental waters.
In the summer duck, which is a native of North America and Cuba, but occasionally wanders to Jamaica and the Bermudas, the colour of the upper-parts of the male in the breeding-dress is chiefly glossy green, with the cheeks purple, and black patches on the neck, and white stripes on both the head and neck. The wing-coverts are partly blue, the flanks are brown, black, and white, while the breast is chestnut spotted with white, and the rest of the under-parts white; the beak being a mixture of black, white, purplish, yellow, and scarlet, and the feet yellow.