No. 123.] DIVISION OF ORNITHOLOGY. 73 



however, when the hole was 30 or 40 or more yards from the bayou or other 

 piece of water, I observed that the mother suffered the young to fall on the 

 grasses and dried leaves beneath the tree, and afterwards led them directly 

 to the nearest edge of the next pool or creek. ^ 



Audubon says, also, that the claws of the young Wood Duck 

 are very sharp indeed, and that he had known the ducklings to 

 climb out of a cask. 



Dr. Abbott, who reports that he watched Wood Ducks taking 

 their young to the water from a hollow limb of the nesting 

 tree, says that the mother bird seemed to give the little ones 

 to understand that they were to follow her, and she clambered 

 down the tree, which stood at an angle of 45 degrees as com- 

 pared with the level surface of the ground. She was followed 

 by the ducklings which then wormed their way to the nearest 

 water. He asserts that the old women who tend poultry say 

 that the ducklings will climb up any woodwork and seek out 

 the nearest water. He was skeptical regarding their climbing 

 abilities until he saw some climb up rough boards to a distance 

 of 3 feet and lower themselves down on the other side. Dr. 

 Abbott also notes that two years later he found another Wood 

 Duck's nest on a steep bluff which was part of the bank of a 

 creek. All over the slope was a dense growth of moderate- 

 sized trees. He gives an account of the manner in w^hich the 

 young reached the water, which is in substance as follows: 

 The nest hole was about 50 feet above the water in a smooth- 

 barked and almost perpendicular tree. The young birds when 

 hatched remained in the nest two days. Dr. Abbott climbed 

 a tree that commanded a view of the nest. When he reached 

 the tree on the third day some of them had disappeared. He 

 waited and watched until he saw the mother bird come in and 

 squat on the nest, when a duckling quickly climbed on her back 

 and "nestled closely between her shoulders." The old bird then 

 walked slowly to the edge of the overhanging limb, and with 

 outspread slowly flapping wings let herself down to the water. 

 The moment she touched the surface of the stream she dived, 

 and left the duckling swimming on the water. This was re- 

 peated four times.^ 



1 Audubon, J. J.: Ornithological Biography, Vol. IH, 1835, p. 55. 



= Abbott, Chas. C: A Naturalist's Rambles about Home, 1885, pp. 239-241. 



