V °89.f] Allen on the Nesting of the 'Black Duck. 57 



stronger as it started around the same circle again, and the cap 

 of the shell would be lifted a little each time, showing that it was 

 attached by little more than the tough membrane beneath the 

 shell. Before the second circle was half completed, it tore the 

 cap loose so that it could be raised like the lid of a box, with one 

 inch of the membrane acting as a hinge. In freeing itself from 

 the shell the neck was stretched out and the little one breathed 

 for the first time. Then the shoulders were pushed out 

 into my hand, free of the shell, one wing after the other being 

 freed, while the bird lay gasping and gaping widely with its bill. 

 In half a minute more it was entirely free from the shell and lay 

 weak and helpless in the sun, its wet, slimy skin ahsolutely bare, 

 save here and there small dark hairs widely separated. As it began 

 to dry it gained in strength and made feeble efforts to stand, resting 

 on the whole length of the tarsus. In drying the hairs no longer 

 adhered to the skin. Soon each little pointed hair began to 

 crack and split open, and from this protective casing there came 

 a light fluff of down nearly as large as the end of one's finger. It 

 was more surprising than the bursting of a grain of pop corn, 

 though far less rapid. It took comparatively few of these yellow 

 and brown fluffs to convert the naked weakling into a beautiful 

 downy duckling that stood up boldly in my hand and began to 

 notice what was going on about it, especially the calls of the 

 parent bird close bv. Each went through the same procedure, 

 invariably breaking the shell from left to right. They showed no 

 fear and would cuddle under one's hand very confidingly. 



When I visited the nest late in the afternoon, after they had 

 had a few hours of instruction from the careful mother, they 

 deserted the nest in wild alarm the moment I appeared in sight, 

 and instantly concealed themselves so as to baffle all search, 

 though all were in plain sight an instant before. This nest was 

 close to that of a Fish Hawk of which it showed no fear what- 

 ever, though I saw one Black Duck that was flying over the 

 marsh suddenly double up and apparently fall over and over, 

 striking the water as if it had been shot and making an instant 

 dive, as a Red-tailed Hawk came sailing over the treetops. 



During the three days I remained on the island I never suc- 

 ceeded in seeing one of these thirty odd ducklings though I more 

 than once heard the old bird calling out warnings to the brood 

 near her. 



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