80 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



them out, or allowing them to climb out. Then tl>ey fall to 

 the ground, and are led to the water. (2) By carrying in the 

 bill down the trunk (if it inclines) to the ground, and leading 

 them to the water. (3) By accompanying the ducklings in 

 their march to water after they have scrambled and tumbled 

 down the tree trunk. (4) By carrying them from the nest to 

 the water on the back. (5) By carrying them from the nest 

 to w^ater in the bill. (6) Sometimes the young may be carried 

 to the water either grasped in the feet of the parent or between 

 the feet and tarsi and the body, somewhat after the manner of 

 a woodcock transporting its young. 



So far, however, the evidence on the last method is not so 

 convincing as that regarding the others. Apparently, all rules 

 that ornithologists have laid down in respect to the conditions 

 under which the different methods are used are disregarded by 

 the birds. Height from the ground seems immaterial. The 

 young birds fall, scramble down, or are carried down, as the 

 case may be. Sometimes if they fall 40 or 50 feet they are 

 stunned for the moment, but soon recover. Distance to the 

 water (within limits) does not affect the case. If the nest is 

 directly over the water the parent may, nevertheless, carry her 

 ducklings down, she may allow them to fall, or she may carry 

 them part way down and then drop them. This happens over 

 either ground or water. Whether the nest is in a hollow hor- 

 izontal broken limb from which the young could readily tumble, 

 or in an upright stub from which they must climb with dif- 

 ficulty, the young may climb out or be carried out in either 

 case, according as their own enterprise or the caprice of the 

 parent may determine. There seems to be individuality even 

 among ducks. 



In one case, where the nest was said to be over 2 miles from 

 the lake, it is a matter of conjecture whether the tiny ducklings 

 would have been able to travel the entire distance on their 

 own feet, feeding on insects or vegetation by the way. In this 

 case, however, the mother was seen to carry them. Our cor- 

 respondence shows that in the majority of cases reported the 

 young were conveyed to the water by the female, but I am 

 inclined to question whether that is the usual proceeding, as 

 many other instances have been recorded in which the duck- 



