BREEDING WILDFOWL. 543 



Hens are useless for hatching the small, tender 

 ducks, and the little woodie is very tender. The 

 young ducks come to her for shelter, and she kicks 

 them to death by scratching for them. I have lost 

 several broods in this way. Then I got the "call 

 ducks," those dwarf, or bantam, mallards bred in Hol- 

 land for calling wildfowl — cute little ducks, the female 

 being persistently noisy if separated from her mate — 

 but the "calls" were not broody when I wanted them to 

 be, or I did not have enough of them. 



The first year a wood duck has four to six eggs, the 

 next year eight to twelve. The greatest number that 

 I ever got from one was seventeen. 



Some writers claim that the mother takes them in 

 her bill and others say that she carries them on her 

 back. I had a string of pens back of my house — a pair 

 in each, for they are better to be separated — and usually 

 I found the mother and her brood on the water in the 

 morning; but on two occasions I saw them leave the 

 nest. The mother went first to the pool and called : 

 she had brooded them for twenty- four hours, or more, 

 and they were strong. Then one after another the 

 little things climbed out of the box and tumbled to the 

 ground, or to the water. 



They had to climb 4 to 6 inches of plain board, but 

 they did it. I have seen them climb a lo-inch base 

 board and go through a i-inch poultry netting when 

 alarmed. They weigh nothing worth mentioning, and 

 they have claws as sharp as cambric needles. They 

 have pricked my hands until they bled when pinioning 



