WILD DUCKS 155 



other hand, even the mother duck does not always succeed. 

 Dr. John C . Phillips who has raised many wood ducks, usually 

 letting the ducks rear their own young, informs me that some 

 years they raise large broods and other seasons almost com- 

 pletely fail, the cause of which he has not been able to ascer- 

 tain. 



Taking Eggs. Except with mallards, which usually will 

 lay anyhow, it is best not to disturb a nest or remove any of 

 the eggs until the duck has nearly completed the set, and till 

 a sitting hen is ready for them. The chances are that the 

 mother bird will have incubated a day or two before it is 

 known that she has finished laying, and this is enough to 

 spoil the eggs if they are allowed to get cold. In the case of 

 mallard eggs collected daily, or of others known to be fresh, 

 they should be kept in a fairly cool place, stood on end in 

 bran, not touching, and reversed daily. It is best not to 

 keep them over two weeks, or three at most, before setting. 

 Ducks' eggs are fragile, and must be handled carefully. 



Transporting Eggs. That wildfowl eggs, even at the most 

 critical stages of incubation, can be transported a few miles 

 when carefully handled, I have proved by experience in the 

 Northwest. On the contrary, I have had no luck at all in 

 sending eggs by express, or carrying them myself with ut- 

 most care, on long railway journeys. These eggs I had col- 

 lected myself, taking only incomplete sets which I knew were 

 fresh. When set, after the journeys of more than 2,000 

 miles, not an embryo, in most cases, started. In one case 

 two eggs hatched, a pintail and a lesser scaup. In one in- 

 stance I hatched out several blue-winged and green-winged 

 teals, but they had no stamina and soon died. Furthermore, 

 eggs of wild ducks are seldom found except by flushing the 

 mother from the nest, almost always after incubation has 

 begun, even though it is imperceptible to the eye, and the 



