132 LEAVES FROM THE 



ministered, and the mare stood quietly watching the 

 helpers, as if conscious of the need of its offspring, as long 

 as the foal was in her sight ; but the moment it was re- 

 moved she became violent. 



White mentions the case of an old hunting-mare, which 

 ran on the common, and which, being taken very ill, came 

 down into the village, as it were to implore the help of 

 men, and died the night following in the street. 



It is a common and not very considerate practice to 

 put ducks' eggs under a broody hen ; and it must be con- 

 fessed that, generally speaking, a more numerous and 

 healthy lot of ducklings are hatched than when the 

 domestic duck herself sits upon them. For she is apt to 

 be careless, and — haunted, perhaps, by some notions of 

 her original free state, and of the fresh nest amid the 

 flags and herbage of the river-side — frequently will not 

 sit close in confinement. But no bird sits closer or better 

 than the common wild-duck, or brings out more nume- 

 rous and vigorous young. Nor are there wanting in- 

 stances, especially about mills and farms near some run- 

 ning stream or lake, of the domestic duck sitting as close 

 and unweariedly as the most persevering hen. In many 

 homesteads, however, which are distant from rivers or 

 brooks, the terrestrial foster-mother is preferred ; and 

 when the young ones are hatched, the moment they see 

 the pond, in they all go, to the unspeakable distress of 

 the hen, which remains clucking and crying on the edge, 

 using every call and gesture in her power to rescue them 

 from the destruction which she thinks must be their por- 

 tion ; nay, the distracted parent will in her agony some- 

 times actually take water at the risk of her own life to 

 preserve, as she thinks, theirs. All this time the duck- 

 lings are swimming about with the utmost complacency, 

 catching flies and amusing themselves in the element 

 to which their unaided instinct has led them in spite of 

 the indignant remonstrances of their foster-mother, 



