WILD DUCK. 271 



distance from water. I have known the nest of the Wild 

 Duck to be found in a field of young wheat, sometimes "in 

 a thick hedge row, or in a wood. Occasionally the Duck 

 will make her nest at a considerable elevation from the 

 ground. One mentioned by Mr. Tunstall, at Etchingham, 

 in Sussex, was found sitting upon nine eggs, on an oak 

 twenty-five feet from the ground. The author of the 

 Rural Sports records an instance of a Duck taking posses- 

 sion of the deserted nest of a Hawk in a large oak ; and 

 Montagu makes mention of one that deposited her eggs in 

 the principal fork of a large elm-tree, and brought her 

 young down in safety. Mr. Selby records an instance, 

 within his own knowledge, and near his own residence, 

 "where a Wild Duck laid her eggs in the old nest of a 

 crow, at least thirty feet from the ground. At this eleva- 

 tion she hatched her young ; and as none of them were 

 found dead beneath the tree, it was presumed she carried 

 them safely to the ground in her bill, a mode of conveyance 

 known to be frequently adopted by the Eider Duck." I 

 have a note of a nest with fifteen eggs, upon which the 

 female was sitting hard, just ready to hatch, on the 3rd of 

 May. The eggs are of a greenish-white colour, smooth on 

 the surface, two inches three lines and a half long, by one 

 inch seven lines in breadth. The young Ducks are two 

 months or ten weeks before they can fly, and formerly 

 advantage was taken of this inability, to have, in the fens, 

 an annual driving of the young Ducks before they took 

 wing. Numbers of people assembled, who beat a vast tract, 

 and forced the birds into a net placed at the spot where 

 the sport was to terminate. A hundred and fifty dozens 

 have been taken at once ; but this practice being supposed 

 to be detrimental, has been abolished by Act of Parlia- 

 ment. Pennant. 



These birds feed on grain, or seeds, worms, slugs, insects, 



