HOW THE WOOD DUCK GETS HER YOUNG 

 TO THE WATER. 



AVERY interesting story it would make to describe 

 all the modes by which young children and 

 animals are carried from place to place by their 

 parents. The Indian papoose travels long distances 

 on its mother's back ; young opossums also ride on 

 their mothers' backs, but to get a firmer hold wind 

 their little tails round that of their mother. The 

 mother kangaroo keeps her little children in a pouch 

 or fold of her skin ; little toads, of one kind, live in 

 holes in their mother's back. 



Young birds do little traveling before they learn 

 to use their wings or legs. The Wood Duck, how- 

 ever, builds her nest in the hollow of a tree, and when 

 the young ducks hatch, she wishes, like all other 

 ducks, to introduce them at once to the water. You 

 have seen a mother cat carry her kittens in her mouth. 

 She holds them tight, but. does not hurt them. So 

 the Wood Duck takes her downy little ducklings with 

 her broad bill and flies to the ground. Her family is 

 large ; over a dozen trips are sometimes needed from 

 the nest to the ground. Then the procession starts 

 off for the water, and the little ducks paddle off as 

 easily as if they had not been born on land. 



