BIRDS OF PEASEMARSH 



fed freely on cornmeal soaked in water, and 

 when they grew up "caught flies with great ex- 

 pertness." 



The story of little Quack, told by a cousin of 

 a Canadian Ornithologist, who spent her child- 

 hood in Muskoka, shows how companionable 

 they will become. Little Quack belonged to a 

 family of ducklings whose mother had come to 

 grief. They were rescued by the children of 

 this family, taken home and given to a mother 

 hen. Every day they went swimming in the 

 stream, the frantic foster mother cackling, 

 flapping her wings, and running down stream 

 after them. Weasels and other four-footed 

 bird enemies living along the stream learned 

 to watch for their daily swim, and each night 

 the hen came home with a duck less, till only 

 one was left. To save this one from the 

 dangers of the stream the children took it to 

 the house. They named it Little Quack and 

 it soon installed itself as a member of the 

 family and learned to waddle along behind the 

 children wherever they went. It went to school 

 with them, and would hide under the desks 

 until school was out. On the way was a little 

 bridge it could not cross itself, and would al- 

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