Excerpt from Common Birds of the Yangtze Delta

Three wild ducks come to our notice both out in the open and on the market. The big handsome mallard (anas boschas) with a glossy green head, the sober yellow nib (arias zonorhyncha) and the gaudy little green-winged teal (anas cracca). The Chinese call them all ya ah, or wild ducks, distinguishing them only by their size as big or little. The drake mallard is sufficiently marked by his green head. The hen mallard and the yellow nib are both greyish-brown mottled yellowish, but the mallard has a yellow bill with a black tip and the yellow nib a black bill with a yellow tip from which he is named. Both the mallard and yellow nib types are quite common amongst the flocks of domesticated ducks raised by the Chinese. The green-wing teal is the little duck so common both on the market and in the country during the winter. The drake has the sides of the head and a spot in the wing rich glossy green; the rest of the head is reddish-chestnut, the body is beautifully marked black, white and brown. The female has the same green wing spot which names the species, but lacks the bright colours on the head and is a uniform greyish-brown mottled cinnamon above and yellow-white Spotted black below. This little duck has the most delicately flavoured flesh of any of our wild ducks, and is rightly much prized for the table.

The last of the listis the curious little grebe or didapper (podiceps minor) everywhere present in the marshes. He is dark brownish-grey above and a clear silvery-white beneath. In winter the head is brownish-black, but in summer both sexes put ona dark red hood which covers the whole head and neck. The grebe lives in the water and gets his food from it, rarely flying unless forced to do so. He is expert at diving and swimming. His Chinese name, s-vuit-lzi, or water ghost, is given him because of his habit of disappearing almost instantly under the water and coming up far to one side, frequently where he cannot be seen. The feet are set so far back that they are of very little use to him on land, in fact he can scarcely walk at all; but for the water they are admirably placed, and serve him so well both as propellers and rudder that he does without a tail, which is the steering apparatus for most birds.

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