76 A LONG DAY WITH THE BERDS 
seventy-five per cent. perish, and many of 
them at sea! Our little feathered friends 
are not born with ‘silver spoons in their 
mouths ! ’ 
The lane led us to low, marshy ground. 
Here we found a mother mallard busy feeding 
her young family. The old bird scurried 
out of the reeds into meadow grass as we 
came near, in an anxious, dashing way, not 
rising on the wing, as she would undoubtedly 
have done had she been without her little 
charges. Her peculiar flurried behaviour 
when with the brood cannot be mistaken, 
though you may not know they are there. 
The ducklings if much disturbed will scuttle 
from cover, a hurrying waddling group, 
going at a great pace after their mother, but 
scattering helter-skelter in all directions. But 
they will all meet again very soon, the mother 
telling her whereabouts by subdued little 
quacks which are quickly heard and recog- 
nized by the frightened youngsters. 
And here or near by you will find the happy 
family most probably again on the morrow, 
