Among the Water Fowl 



be, — and in It three greenish olive eggs, — the largest 

 laid by any of the Ducks, nearly as large as Goose 

 eggs, — were very cosily bedded. 



When we come as far south as southern New 

 England, all we can hope to find of breeding Ducks 

 are the Dusky and the Wood Ducks, and it is no 

 easy matter to find even these. Usually it is more 

 by accident than otherwise. On Martha's Vineyard 

 I was once exploring an alder swamp for the home 

 of a pair of Marsh Hawks, when a great Dusky 

 Duck suddenly whirred up from beneath an alder, 

 almost in my face, and I found my first Duck's 

 nest with an even dozen fine eggs. This was the 

 second day of June, and they were almost ready 



to hatch. An- 

 A"^ other time when 

 I was exploring 

 the rushy edge 

 of a pond in Con- 

 necticut, I no- 

 ticed a dark place 

 under some 

 rushes that 

 looked suspici- 

 ously like Duck- 

 down. It was 

 that, indeed, and on pulling it apart I found eleven 

 warm eggs of the Dusky Duck. 



The Wood Duck is the most domestic of all 

 the tribe, and is very apt to nest in some most unex- 

 pected place, close to human habitations. I knew 

 of one nest in a knot-hole of a large maple, only six 

 feet from the ground, right on a well-traveled road 



212 



ON PULLING IT APART I FOUND ELEVEN WARM EGGS 

 OF THE DUSKV DUCK." FOUND IN KENT, CONN. 



