Domestic Animals 145 



little ducklings are hatched from eggs as chickens 

 are, but the mother duck sits on the eggs longer 

 twenty-eight days. 



"My cousin that I visited last summer keeps ducks, 

 and at that time she had about fifty little ducklings. 

 She told me that meal and uncooked food was not 

 very good for little ducklings, so twice a day she 

 baked great cakes of dough for them. She made 

 the cakes of meal or grain mixed with water. It 

 was great fun to see her feed them out in the yard. 

 She broke the cake into small pieces, and how they 

 would run and scramble for it! On pleasant days 

 she let them run about in the yard and take a little 

 swim in the water, but on rainy days they were 

 kept in the duck-house. 



" 'What harm will it do if they get wet ?' said I. 

 ' Don't they get wet swimming ? ' 



'No/ she replied, 'only a little, and the hot sun 

 soon dries their feathers; but rain chills them all 

 through. The first year I kept ducks, a good many 

 died from cold and wet, and I learned to be more 

 careful. One must not let ducklings stay in the 

 water very long at a time, either, for [they often get 

 cramp in their legs/ 



