The Mallard Song is an ancient tradition of All Souls' College, Oxford.
In the ceremony, Fellows parade around the college with flaming torches, led by a "Lord Mallard" who is carried in a chair, in search of a giant mallard that supposedly flew out of the foundations of the college when it was being built in 1437.
The procession is led by an individual carrying a duck — originally dead, now just wooden — tied to the end of a vertical pole.
The ceremony was last held in 2001, with Martin Litchfield West acting as Lord Mallard.
His predecessor as Lord Mallard was Cosmo Lang, who presided over the centenary ceremony in 1901.