76 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Mr. E. F. Pope, El Reno, Oklahoma, says: — 



Once, while fishing on the Neeches River in southeastern Texas, I 

 observed a female Wood Duck bringing part of her brood of 10 ducklings 

 down from a white oak stub 28 feet above the water. There were three or 

 four of the young already in the water when I appeared on the scene. 

 She emerged from the cavity in the stub with a young duck on her back, 

 and simply dropped straight down into the water, using her wings enough 

 to check the speed of her descent. When she arrived within a foot or two 

 of the surface she suddenly assumed a vertical position which caused the 

 duckling to slide from her back into the water. She rose quickly, circled 

 a time or two, re-entered the stub, and at once repeated the performance 

 imtil the whole brood of ten were on the water. 



Mr. W. S. Cochrane, State Game Warden of Arkansas, wrote 

 me, November 29, 1921, as follows: — 



About the middle of April last I was in the vicinity of the Federal 

 Reservation in Mississippi County, Arkansas, and noticed several Wood 

 Ducks flying around the reservation lake. I spent two days to ascertain 

 beyond a question how these ducks bring their young from the tree top to 

 the water. One of these ducks had a nest in the top of an oak tree about 

 40 feet from the water. 



Mr. Cochrane spent three hours watching the nest, an^ con- 

 cluded from what he saw that if he stayed long enough he 

 might see the female bring her young to the water, which she 

 finally did. He describes the operation as follows: — 



She visited the nest several times, and after circling around the woods 

 returned and rested on the edge of the nest which was in a hollow stub of 

 the oak. After resting there about ten minutes she flew down toward the 

 water with her wings slightly elevated, and when about 10 feet from the 

 water she began flying in an upward position, allowing one of the young 

 which she was carrying on her back to slide off over her tail into the water. 

 She went through this performance fourteen times. 



He tried to learn what became of the young after they fell 

 into the water, but could not locate them until after the bird 

 had succeeded in getting them all down from the nest, when 

 both male and female alighted in the water near where she had 

 deposited her young. After swimming about in the wild rice, 

 they swam into the clear water, when he counted 14 young 

 ones with them. 



