208 Sporting Sketches 



nest. This task and the covering of the eggs are 

 performed by the female, for to the best of my 

 knowledge the male does little more than sit around 

 on handy limbs and look pretty. During the period 

 of nest building, and while the duck is laying, he is 

 the beau ideal of a handsome and loving cavalier, 

 ever attentive and seemingly most anxious as to her 

 whereabouts should she happen to get out of his 

 sight. But with the waning of the honeymoon he 

 seems to feel rather bored with the whole business, 

 and gradually he gets clubby i.e. wanders from his 

 own fireside and hunts up another drake or two to 

 help him loaf away the summer. The busy little 

 duck keeps her own counsel and " sits tight'" on the 

 dozen or more highly polished ivory-like eggs 

 crowded together in a bed of soft decayed wood and 

 down from her breast. 



Quite frequently the nest is at the bottom of a 

 hollow several feet deep, and no doubt the strong, 

 hooked claws of the wood-duck are a special provi- 

 sion for the oft repeated climbing out of the hollow. 

 The newly hatched young are extraordinarily active, 

 and so soon as they are dry and ready for their first 

 peep at the outside world, either the mother carries 

 them in her bill to the ground, or they scramble 

 to the front door and reach the earth as best they 

 may. I have kept close watch on a number of nests, 

 and by the aid of an excellent glass have observed 

 many details of the interesting ceremonies of Evac- 

 uation Day in Woodduckville. One nest in par- 

 ticular was in a huge hollow willow which had a 

 decided cant to nor'ard and whidh stood perhaps 

 twenty yards from the stream and leaned from, not 



