PRESERVING AND LURING THE DUCK 97 



before the clutch is placed in the nesting-box. For 

 the first fourteen days she should never be off the 

 eggs longer than ten minutes at a time. Let her be 

 taken from the nest at the same hour each morning, fed 

 in a coop, and then put back on the nest. After the 

 first fourteen days, unless in cold weather, she may 

 be allowed off the eggs for a quarter of an hour or 

 twenty minutes. About the twenty-third day remove 

 and destroy any eggs which on testing are found to 

 be infertile or to contain dead chicks. On the 

 twenty-fifth day remove the eggs and nest, loosen 

 the soil, and then pour a quart or more of warm 

 water into the nesting-box, allowing the liquid to be 

 thoroughly absorbed by the earth before putting back 

 the nest and eggs. Early in the morning of the 

 twenty-sixth day feed the hen as usual, and then do 

 not disturb her again till the chicks are out of the 

 shell. When the latest chick is clean and strong, coop 

 the hen in some dry and sheltered situation, under 

 cover if possible. 



Young wild duck will do well if fed as their 

 domesticated relatives are usually fed ; but they do 

 better, and this with less trouble to their attendant, 

 if raised from the shell on food specially adapted to 

 them such as Gilbertson and Page's largely used 

 wild-duck meal the special food containing a 



