104 OUR HUMBLE HELPERS 



contrary, has forgotten none of her maternal duties ; 

 she even carries them to excess in the hen-house, 

 until she lets herself die of starvation on her nest, 

 a thing she would not do in her wild state. Hence, 

 it is to the hen, a better mother than the duck, that 

 the latter 's eggs are usually entrusted. 



"The period of incubation is thirty-one days, the 

 same as with the wild duck. If the brood is hatched 

 at a time of year when the weather is still cold, it 

 would be dangerous for the ducklings to go im- 

 mediately into the water, whither their instinct calls 

 them, and whither the mother duck that had brooded 

 them would not fail to lead them. Hence the little 

 ones and their mother, hen or duck, are put under 

 a coop in a place apart, where there is no danger of 

 trampling or other rough treatment from the rest 

 of the poultry. During this sequestration the food 

 consists of a mixture of barley flour, boiled potatoes, 

 bran, and chopped nettles, all made into a mush 

 with greasy dish-water. Ducklings have a strong 

 stomach and active digestion; they need from six 

 to eight meals a day, so quickly does their food pass. 

 Let us not forget to put a large plate of water under 

 the coop. It will serve them as a swimming basin 

 in which their wide beaks will practise dabbling and 

 their webbed feet will learn their destined use. 

 Daily sport on this little sheet of water will help 

 them to have patience until the great day when 

 larger evolutions on the broad pond will be allowed. 



"A week, two weeks, pass in this way. At last 

 the longed-for moment arrives. The mother duck 



