52 LEAVES FROM MY NOTE-BOOK. 



towards its close, and for the last day or two it is probable that 

 she will not stir from the nest at all. When the' eggs are hatched, 

 her next care is to get her brood safely to the water. This, when 

 the distance is considerable, necessarily demands great caution, 

 and so cunningly is it done that but few persons have encountered 

 the mother and offspring as they make the dangerous journey. 

 (When Ducks breed in trees, as is often the case in the London 

 parks, it is still a mystery how the young are conveyed to the 

 ground.) If disturbed, the young immediately hide as they best 

 can, while the mother quacks loudly, feigns lameness, and flutters 

 off to divert the attention of intruders from the brood, who lie 

 motionless at her warning notes. Throughout the summer the 

 Duck continues her care unremittingly, until her young are full 

 grown and feathered."* 



The deterioration of instinct brought about by civilisation is 

 often painful to witness. Not only is the instinct of nest-making 

 lost, but the eggs are dropped in any place where the bird may 

 happen to be ; in the dust of the poultry yard, or in a pond. 

 Persons who wish to rear ducks profitably are therefore accustomed 

 to shut them up in their pens till after laying. One duck I had 

 hatched some young ones on her own account, but the maternal 

 instinct, except for sitting, was dead; she deserted her young ones, 

 which endeavoured wearily to follow her, and when they were 

 placed in a coop with her she endeavoured to kill them. But 

 most of the ducks I had did not attempt even to sit. In one 

 duck, who from a remote resemblance to the Aylesbury breed was 

 known as the Marchioness, maternal instinct by a species of 

 atavism was healthy. Year after year the Marchioness made her 

 nest where none of us could even find it, and came in followed by 

 a brood of five young ducks, which she watched over with the 

 fiercest vigilance. 



Call Ducks. 



Darwin, speaking of the Call Duck, gives an instance of trans- 

 mission of a quality peculiar to the female of this variety, through 

 the male. He says, " Call Ducks are remarkable for their extra- 

 ordinary loquacity : the drake only hisses like common drakes ; 



Article Duck, Encyclopedia Britannica. 



