3i8 OUR RARER BIRDS 



Wild Ducks are nesting. Under one of the clumps of bracken 

 the female has made her home. She watches us anxiously 

 as we approach, and when her nest is almost at our feet she 

 hurries quickly away, flapping just above the ground, and 

 hiding herself amongst a distant group of white-thorns. She 

 displays no alluring motions, nor does she utter a sound as 

 she quits her charge. Let us examine her cradle. It is in- 

 deed a beautiful structure, and claims our warmest admiration. 

 In the first place a hole has been scraped in the ground to 

 the depth of several inches. The materials of the nest con- 

 sist of the fronds of the bracken growing so profusely near, 

 and a quantity of the mother-bird's soft plumage is studded 

 here and there amongst it, giving the structure a very speckled 

 appearance. It is lined with down and feathers, amongst 

 which the twelve eggs are snugly placed. In some nests as 

 many as sixteen may be found, whilst others contain only 

 eight or ten. They are very similar to the eggs of the 

 domestic Duck, but are a little smaller, being pale greenish- 

 yellow, without a marking of any kind. 



I have seen many nests of this bird built on the bare 

 ground under heather and furze on small islands; and in 

 some cases you may find two or three nests witliin a few yards 

 of each other. When the old bird leaves her nest to feed, she 

 carefully covers her eggs with moss and down, or bits of 

 vegetation growing near. The eggs are covered long before 

 the bird begins to sit, and when no warmth is required — 

 another clear proof, by the way, that this careful proceeding is 

 for concealment alone. The Wild Duck only rears one brood 

 in the season. The drake is rarely seen in the neighbourhood 

 of the nest, or in company of the duck at all after she has 

 begun to sit. His showy plumage is probably the cause of 

 his apparent neglect, the female's dress being beautifully pro- 

 tective amongst the haunts she frequents. When the eggs 

 are laid in elevated nests the mother-bird conveys the duck- 



