240 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



to leave the exact spot for her nest; but, to meet 

 the clanger of its continued position in a small wet 

 ditch, she has adopted the moor-hen-like plan of 

 raising the nest on such light material that it will 

 rise and fall with the water beneath, besides, being 

 built of a very considerable amount of grass and 

 heather twigs, lifting it from the bottom of the 

 ditch a foot high. Most ducks commence their 

 nests by scraping out a dent in the ground, and 

 as they lay they cover over the eggs day by day 

 with freshly collected material. Not so with this 

 duck, who must have had ''reason'' to know that 

 her nest CO z^ZcZ not he safe if dealt with by her after 

 the suggestions of Nature. She, therefore, com- 

 mences building her nest quite four days previously 

 to laying an egg, and builds it much after the 

 fashion of the swan. She raises it, and finishes it 

 off always within twelve hours or thereabouts of 

 laying the first egg. During the time that I have 

 been cognizant of this, Toovey, my head keeper, 

 has always contrived to take her off the nest on 

 the day of hatching, with her young ; and that we 

 intend to do again, as she makes an excellent 

 mother when put under a cooji. My experience 

 teaches me that all birds have an attachment to 



