WILD DUCK. 15 



When the debate has ended, the whole flock take wing in 

 separate parties, and return again in like manner soon after 

 dawn the following morning. 



They are believed to remain in pairs throughout the year, 

 and the young birds to choose their mates before the anni- 

 versary of their first summer. 



The nest of this species, constructed the latter end of 

 April, is placed, unless in a few rare exceptional instances, 

 some of which will presently be mentioned, on the ground 

 in a dry place, often near, but on the other hand not 

 unfrequently at a distance from water; in some cases under 

 a hedge, and in others in an open field, or in a wood, but 

 under shelter of some kind; sometimes in marshy spots. It 

 is small in size, little more than six inches in the inner width, 

 and regularly formed of dry grass or other vegetable materials; 

 the lining being down, to the thickness of between two and 

 three inches. 



As Mr. Hewitson observes, 'We should scarcely expect to 

 find the nest of the Wild Duck in a tree, and yet several 

 instances have occurred in which it has chosen for itself a 

 site thus elevated, and apparently uncongenial to its usual 

 habits. Mr. Tuke has met with a nest of this species in 

 the grounds of Castle Howard, in a large tree, twenty-five 

 feet above the ground, and fifty yards from the edge of the 

 water. Mr. Tunstall speaks of one at Etchingham, in Sussex, 

 which was built in an oak tree twenty-five feet above the 

 ground, and contained nine eggs; and Mr. Selby says that a 

 Wild Duck laid its eggs in the nest of a Crow, at least 

 thirty feet from the ground.' Others have been found at a 

 height of ten and eighteen feet. 



I*i Daniels' 'Rural Sports,' mention is made of the deserted 

 nest of a Hawk, in a large oak, having been appropriated 

 by a Wild Duck; and Montagu speaks of one built between 

 the trunk and the boughs of a large elm tree, and of another 

 in a willow tree overhanging some water. Meyer mentions 

 one found by him on the stump of an old willow tree; and 

 G. B. Clarke, Esq., in 'The Naturalist,' volume i, page 110, 

 one built on the fragment of a broken branch of an oak 

 about twelve feet from the ground, and a foot and a 

 half from the trunk. Another was found at Thornton Abbey, 

 in Lincolnshire, near the top of a large ivy-covered ash tree, 

 another in an old ruin. Sir William Jardine mentions one 



