72 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



from the top. This tree had been occupied by Wood Ducks 

 for four successive seasons. A person whose house was within 

 20 or 30 yards of the tree told Wilson that he had seen the 

 female carry down 13 young, one by one, in less than ten 

 minutes. "She caught them in her bill by the wing or the 

 back of the neck and landed them safely at the foot of the 

 tree, thence she afterward led them to the water." Wilson 

 evidently believed this account.^ 



Female. Male. 



Wood Duck (Aix sponsa). 

 (From Game Birds, Wild-Fowl and Shore Birds.) 



The Wood Duck nests in a hollow tree. The female gets her young to the water in various 

 ways, sometimes leading them and sometimes carrying them. 



Audubon says : — 



If the nest is placed immediately over the water, the young the moment 

 they are hatched scramble to the mouth of the hole, launch into the air 

 with their little feet and wings spread out and drop into their favorite 

 element, but whenever their birthplace is at some distance from it, the 

 mother carries them to it one by one in her bill. ... On several occasions, 



' Wilson, Alexander, and Bonaparte, Charles Lucien: American Ornithology, Vol. I, pp. 88, 89. 



