WOOD DUCK. 141 



American ducks. It is commonly compared with the 

 mandarin duck of China, but it is larger and its dress is 

 a little more highly colored, and while more rich, is yet 

 more simple. 



This is a bird of the South, and breeds everywhere 

 throughout the Eastern and Southern United States, 

 in suitable localities. Unlike most of our ducks, it is 

 not a migrant to the far North, though it has been 

 found as far North as latitude 54 degrees, but it con- 

 fines itself pretty well to the United States, and further 

 to the southward. 



The wood duck is a bird of swamps and small inland 

 waters, and is notable as being one of the few species 

 which always nests in trees. Sometimes it takes pos- 

 session of a hole excavated by a great woodpecker, or 

 it may adapt a hollow in a trunk or branch to its use. It 

 is very much at home in the timber, and threads its way 

 among the tree-tops at great speed. The eggs are 

 often laid on the bare wood that forms the floor of the 

 cavity which it occupies, but, as incubation goes on, the 

 mother plucks more or less down from her breast to 

 cover them. When the young are hatched, if the nest 

 is over the water, they crawl to the opening and 

 throw themselves into the air to fall into the water. If, 

 however, the nest is at a distance from the shore, the 

 mother carries them to the water in her bill. When the 

 young ducks are hatched their claws are exceedingly 

 sharp, and they are great climbers. They thus have 

 little difficulty in making their way to the mouth of 

 the hole. 



