CHANQE OF SEASONS AND OF THE TIMES. 281 



Ing of snow and duck, were not hurt, and the 

 duck found licr way back to the nest by the 

 track in the snow she had made in leaving it. 

 Other nests of eggs also, when the duck did not 

 sit, Avere in that year not harmed because the 

 covering the duck herself had put on her eggs, 

 as Avell as the snow, served for a sufficient pro- 

 tection ; and besides this, the fall of snow was not 

 accompanied or followed by much frost. 



In other instances, the change of season, has worn 

 a much more difficult aspect. The frost has come 

 with wet, but without much snow, and with 

 such unusual severity for the time of year, that 

 the cold, of course acting on every humid thing, 

 absolutely froze the vivifying principle in the 

 eggs of all kindsj but seized particularly on 

 those laid in damj) places, whether the old duck, 

 in the case of ducks, was on the eggs or not 

 — even the duck's dowiiy breast could not 

 save the eggs; but the wet she carried on her 

 breast from the pools or rivers, so necessary in 

 genial weather to the perfection of hatching, added 

 to the power of the frost. In the same way, I 

 have known the earliest nest of the pewits de- 

 stroyed. A frozen egg will not boil hard; so, for 



