Wood- Duck and Wood- Duck Shooting 209 



toward, the water, thus reversing the usual habit of 

 such trees. In this tree were hatched eleven young ; 

 and their first flitting was as follows, as notes then 

 taken show : 



The drake was conspicuous by his absence, for he 

 was neither in the tree, in any near-by tree, nor on 

 the visible half-mile of stream. An observation late 

 the previous afternoon had proved the existence of 

 one newly hatched duckling, which lay with the 

 eggs about a foot below the entrance. Owing to 

 the peculiar cant of the tree, it was possible to see 

 the eggs and learn what was going on without any 

 feeling for information, which is a dangerous experi- 

 ment with the eggs of most birds. 



Bright and early, therefore, the following morning 

 I took position against a stump on my side of the 

 stream. From this point the hole in the willow was 

 plainly exposed, and with the glass I could see even 

 the small scratches made by the duck's claws on the 

 barkless wood below the doorway of her home. It 

 was nearly ten o'clock before the sun shone fairly 

 into the hole, and a few minutes later the duck came 

 forth and stepped nimbly along the sloping trunk 

 for perhaps a couple of yards. She seemed anx- 

 iously alert, and for some time stood erect, twisting 

 her neck about as though examining every yard 

 of the surroundings. Presently she scratched her 

 head with an action so comically suggestive of a 

 certain class of human thinkers, that I was forced 

 to smile. Evidently, she was a bit worried, but 

 whatever may have been the troublesome problem, 

 she presently solved it to her satisfaction, for she 

 began to preen her feathers in a rapid and unusually 



