322 FEATHERED GAME 



When the ducklings have arrived and gained 

 a little strength the parent bird takes them in 

 her beak and carries them to the nearest pond, 

 unless, as is often the case, the nest overhangs 

 the water, when she saves herself this trouble 

 by simply pushing them overboard. Then she 

 shows them how to get a living. There are 

 often a dozen in a family, so that it is fortunate 

 that they have only to reach out and take what 

 they want to eat, otherwise the mother might 

 have a hard time of it in providing for her nu- 

 merous progeny, for the male bird usually de- 

 serts his mate at this time, leaving to her all the 

 family cares. The drake spends the summer 

 moulting season away from home with other 

 recreant husbands, and is hardly to be recog- 

 nized as the same gaudy bird of the spring. 



About the first of September, the young birds 

 having by this time become well grown and 

 strong and the males again joining the flocks, 

 the Wood Ducks begin to scatter about from 

 their breeding grounds, a few at a time, the 

 main body waiting until colder weather forces 

 them from their summer homes, when they start 

 for their winter quarters in the southern tiers 

 of States, occasionally going beyond. They 



