158 OUR DOirKSTIC FOWLS. 



The tame duck often lays more eggs than 

 slie can well cover during incubation, but she 

 should never be allowed to sit on more than 

 twelve or fourteen. It is a common practice 

 to put duck eggs under common liens, nor do' 

 the latter when the ducklings are hatched 

 distinguish between them and their natural 

 brood. The agitation of the poor hen when 

 her web-footed charge betake themselves to 

 the water, into which, instinct-guided, they 

 fearlessly plunge, cannot have escaped the 

 observation of every reader. That the hen 

 should foster the ducklings she has hatched is 

 not more strange than that the hedge-sparrow 

 or wagtail should rear the young cuckoo, to 

 the destruction of their own young ; yet in 

 some instances the hen distinguishes a strange 

 nestling. Some years since we placed a nest- 

 ling green linnet under a hen, brooding over 

 her just hatched progeny : she at once rejected 

 it with auger, and if not prevented would 

 have killed it. Was this an accidental occur- 

 rence, or would it always on trial occur? 



Though the young ducklings take early to 

 the water, it is better that they should gain a 

 little strength before they be allowed to ven- 

 ture into ponds or rivers j a shallow vessel of 



