No. 123.] DIVISION OF ORNITHOLOGY. 75 



sent out widely at that time there was a question regarding 

 the manner in which young Wood Ducks reached the water 

 from the nest. Thirteen Massachusetts correspondents asserted 

 that the Wood Duck carried the young. In one instance the 

 mother bird was seen to push her young out of the nest, about 

 40 feet from the ground, and they fell to the grass apparently 

 unharmed, then she led them to the water. In another case a 

 Maine guide reported that he saw a Wood Duck fly down and 

 alight on the w^ater, and that the young, which seemed to be 

 clinging to her back, fell into the water as she struck the sur- 

 face. Some of my correspondents claimed to have seen the 

 female bird carrying her young, others relied on the testimony 

 of people in whose observations they had confidence. 



Some special observers of the Division of Ornithology and 

 a large number of Fellows, Members and Associates of the 

 American Ornithologists Union in the United States and Canada 

 were questioned this year in regard to their personal knowledge 

 of this matter. Many of them replied that they had been told 

 by credible witnesses that the female Wood Duck carried her 

 young to the w^ater either on her back or in her bill. Others 

 asserted that the young climbed out or fell out of the nesting 

 tree and were led to the water by the parent. Some had seen 

 this. Others had seen the mother conveying her young. 



Mr. H. F. Moulton of Ware, Massachusetts, says that he 

 saw a Wood Duck carry her young from a hollow stub to the 

 brink of White River. The nest was about 12 feet high and 

 10 or 15 feet from the water. The river flowed slowdy at this 

 point, and he observed the bird from a distance of about 75 

 yards. He cannot say just how it was done, for he was too 

 far off. Mr. Chresw^ell J. Hunt of Chicago writes that on April 

 4, 1920, near Tillar, Arkansas, he discovered a female Wood 

 Duck w^ith her brood of 13 young crossing the railroad track 

 evidently headed for a bayou that lay about half a mile away. 

 These young ducks were caught and kept in a straight-sided 

 wooden box, but it was ineffectual as a container, for the young 

 birds climbed out "about as fast as they could be put back." 

 They used both bill and claws in climbing. Apparently they 

 would have had no trouble in climbing out of a hollow nesting 

 tree. 



