82 WILD DUCK. 



as soon as she begins to sit. The hen covers the 

 eggs with down and other substances if she leaves the 

 nest for a time. 



As Mr. Hewitson observes, 'We should scarcely 

 expect to find the nest of the Wild Duck in a tree, 

 and yet several instances have occurred in which it 

 has chosen for itself a site thus elevated, and apparently 

 uncongenial to its usual habits. Mr. Kute has met 

 with a nest of this species in the grounds of Castle 

 Howard, in a large oak tree, twenty-five feet above 

 the ground, and fifty yards from the edge of the water. 

 Mr. Marmaduke Tunstall speaks of one at Etchingham, 

 in Sussex, which was built in an oak tree twenty-five 

 feet above the ground, and contained nine eggs; and 

 Mr. Selby says that a Wild Duck laid its eggs in the 

 nest of a Crow, at least thirty feet from the ground.' 

 This was at Madeley, in Staffordshire. The drake was 

 also seen to perch on a bough near her, and occa- 

 sionally in her absence sat on the nest. Others have 

 been found at a height of ten and eighteen feet. 



In Daniel's 'Rural Sports,' mention is made of 

 the deserted nest of a Hawk in a large oak having 

 been appropriated and repaired by a Wild Duck, and 

 two eggs laid in it; and Montagu speaks of one built 

 between the trunk and the boughs of a large elm tree, 

 and of another in a willow tree overhanging some 

 water. Meyer mentions one found by him on the 

 stump of an old willow tree; and G. B. Clarke, Esq., 

 in 'The Naturalist,' volume i., page 116, one built 

 on the fragment of a broken branch of an oak about 

 twelve feet from the ground, and a foot and a half 

 from the trunk. Another, of which Mr. A. Foster- 

 Melliar has informed me, containing nine eggs, was 

 placed in a pollard willow tree, twelve feet from the 



