DUCKS AND DRAKES 31 »5 



living chiefly on the fish they catch by chasing them 

 under water. Their beaks are narrow, hooked, and 

 sharply toothed, which makes it easy for them to hold 

 their slippery prey. But this oily food makes their 

 flesh so rank that none of them is fit food for House 

 People. They are all called Mergansers, and we have 

 in this country four different species. 



"The River Ducks are those that we see mostly in 

 the spring and fall migrations ; they have the hand- 

 somest plumage and the most delicate flesh. They 

 feed along shallow rivers, ponds, and lakes, after the 

 manner of barnyard Ducks — for the Mallard is one of 

 them, and tame Ducks are domesticated Mallards, as 1 

 told you. In feeding, they bob head downward in the 

 water with their tails straight up in the air, to find the 

 roots, seeds, insects, small shell-fish, and other things 

 the}' like to eat. They build very good nests, usually 

 on the ground, and warmly lined with their own down, 

 which the parent plucks from her breast to cover the 

 eggs. The color of the eggs is always greenish, gray, 

 drab, or buff, never with any spots. Most River Ducks 

 nest in the far North, but there are some exceptions. 

 The Wood Duck that Rap saw by the lake is one of 

 these exceptions, and has the most beautiful plumage 

 of all our Ducks. It does not build its nest on the 

 ground, like most others of its family, but in a tree hole, 

 like an Owl or a Woodpecker." 



'' How can the little Ducks get down to the ground 

 — do their Avings grow strong very soon?" asked Nat. 



" You have seen that most birds come from the egg 

 quite naked, and stay in the nest till tlieir feathers 

 grow, like Canaries and all other song birds, while 



