152 PROPAGATION OF WILD BIRDS 



the causes of failure are not hard to discern. In the first 

 place, the quarters usually are not suitable. In my various 

 explorations I have found the nests of twenty species of 

 American wild ducks, including hundreds of nests. In 

 every case the nest has been most carefully concealed. Never 

 is it out in open view, but always hidden with the greatest 

 care. Seldom have I found the treasures without flushing 

 the mother bird. She is wonderfully hidden in the tangle 

 of grass or bushes, and it would take the sharpest of eyes to 

 discover her. She will sit motionless until almost stepped 

 on. When she leaves the nest of her own accord to feed, she 

 covers the eggs with a blanket of down plucked from her 

 breast, and often, in addition, scratches over them the sur- 

 rounding debris. When she returns she sneaks through the 

 grass with the greatest caution, and no eye sees her. If 

 flushed, she is apt to stay off for hours before she dares to 

 creep back. Nesting with a wild duck is her most precious 

 secret. How in the name of commonsense can she be ex- 

 pected to breed when kept in a prim artificial pond with 

 elegant stone curbing, the grass around it closely trimmed 

 and raked, and the shrubbery neatly groomed! After all, 

 in her desire for privacy she is considerable of a lady ! 



And, speaking of privacy, how can they get it on a little 

 pond, with bare surroundings, crowded with ducks, usually 

 with plenty of tame polygamous mallards that will chase 

 away every other duck and interfere in all its affairs. An- 

 other trouble is wrong feeding, insufficient in certain ele- 

 ments. Wild ducks can exist on a grain diet, but grain 

 alone is not conducive to fertile eggs. 



b. Laying and Hatching 



Egg-production. Only one wild native species, the mal- 

 lard, usually lays eggs at all continuously like domestic 



