BALDPATE, THE WIDGEON 
I 
iY BALDPATE could talk and was not 
afraid to tell you about himself he could 
relate a wonderful story concerning the 
strange things that befell him even before he was 
one year old. Baldpate is a wild duck of the 
kind that hunters call the widgeon, and the top of 
his head is white. He lives in a country where 
few people ever see him, and where even fewer 
can understand what ducks say when they do 
talk among themselves. 
It is probable that the first thing this broad- 
billed bird can remember is the feeling of comfort 
he experienced one afternoon when he crawled 
out of his old brownish-white shell and had a 
chance to stretch his tired neck and legs. Soon 
after this he fell asleep and it must have been 
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