/;; My Bird Saiictiiory. 117 



above the ground, and Mr. Henderson (I was away at the 

 time) was very interested to know how the duck managed to 

 get her young brought down to the ground. 



One year he noted the day she began to sit, and, as he 

 knew the period of incubation, on the morning the duck was 

 due to hatch the eggs he went and sat down a Httle distance 

 away opposite the ehn tree. 



Presently he saw the duck come to the mouth of the hole 

 and fiy down into the long grass underneath, where she began 

 calling. Then he saw the little ducks come to the edge of the 

 hole, and fall, one at a time, except in one instance where two 

 fell together. There were six of them altogether, and he told 

 me they fell like corks into the long grass. 



Afterwards I had the height from the ground measured. 

 and the depth of the hole in the tree measured. It turned out 

 that the hole was two feet deep, two feet perpendicular from the 

 nest to the mouth of the hole. The hole was twenty-one feet 

 above the ground, so the little ducks, newly-hatched when the 

 mother flew out of the hole, had first of all in the dark cavity of 

 the tree to climb up two feet within the trunk, then come to the 

 hole and throw themselves down, and after having- done that, to 

 go with their mother for three-hundred yards through the long- 

 grass, following her to the water. 



I think that this is a striking incident. Think of the Httle 

 ducks left in the nest. Xewly-hatched out. they had no feeding 

 to strengthen them after leaving the egg. That they came out 

 of the egg with such vitality and vigour that they could accom- 

 plish a cHmb of two feet perpendicular, and after a drop of 

 twenty-one feet they could thereafter go off three-hundred yards 

 through long grass, is a tremendous tribute to the energy of 

 nature. 



You will observe that the mother duck made no attempt 

 to carry them down. Sometimes I have read in books that the 

 common wild duck occasionally nests at a considerable heighi 

 from the ground. I have seen one nest about seven feet from 

 the ground, and know that this is so; but when I see it stated 

 that in such cases the mallard carries the young ducks down to 

 ihe ground, I doubt it. I think if any duck is in the habit of 

 carrying its young to the ground, the North American Wood- 



