206 



Life and Immortality. 





SUMMER DUCKS AND YOUNG. 

 Female Carrying Young in Her Bill from Nest in Hollow Tree. 



to spread their ill-feathered pinions and oar-like feet and 

 fling themselves down, a feat which can be performed without 

 jeopardy to life or limb. 



Almost any tree, or tree-branch, containing the essential 

 hollow, and suitably located, is utilized. Broken branches 

 of high sycamores, seldom more than forty or fifty feet from 

 water, are,according to Audubon, favorite places, while Wilson 

 claims to have met the home of a pair of these birds in a 

 fork composed of branches, and built out of a few rude 

 sticks. In the South, the forsaken retreat of the gray 

 squirrel and the hole of the ivory-billed woodpecker are 

 common nesting-places. Often the entrance to the nest is 

 apparently so small when compared with the bulk of the 

 occupant that it is a matter of surprise to many that she can 



