The Wood Duck 77 



tree. Almost any tree, or tree branch, containing the essential 

 hollow, and suitably located, is utilized. Broken branches 

 of high sycamores, seldom more than forty or fifty feet from 

 the water, are according to Audubon, favorite places for their 

 nests. Occasionally the nest is placed among the branches of 

 trees and is built of twigs, grasses, leaves and feathers. A pair 

 will nest in the same place for years in succession, and this 

 would seem to indicate that they mate for life. Eight to four- 

 teen creamy white eggs, oval in shape and less in size than 

 those of a hen, constitute a clutch. The female attends to the 

 incubation which .lasts about twenty-one days. During this 

 time, she leaves the nest only long enough to obtain food and 

 water, and when she leaves the nest, she carefully covers the 

 eggs with feathers and down. During the nesting period, the 

 male remains close by where the nest is located, seemingly 

 keeping a watch over his mate and her nest. 



Like the young of domestic ducks and other precocial 

 birds, young wood ducks are ready to leave the nest and obtain 

 their food as soon as they are hatched. How do they get from 

 the nest to the ground and water? This question has been 

 answered in various ways. Audubon, Wilson,' Chapman and 

 other authors agree that they "are brought from the nest to 

 the ground in the bill of the parent." Wilson in describing 

 the process says, "She caught them in her bill by the wing or 

 back of the neck, and landed them safely at the foot of the 

 tree, when she afterwards led them to the water." Mr. 

 Abbott, however, in A Naturalist's Rambles about Home, 

 gives a full account of two nests which he watched. Of the 

 first he says, "I had not long to wait before the modus oper- 

 andi in this case was learned. The old duck, by sound or 

 actions, gave the little ducklings to understand that they were 

 to follow their mother, and presently she slowly clambered 

 down the trunk of the tree, which grew at an angle of forty- 

 five degrees from the level surface of the ground, and was 

 followed by the ducklings. * * * There is one fact, too, 

 that has an important bearing on this subject. It is well 

 known to those who have tried to rear young wood-ducks, 

 that the newly hatched birds have long, sharp, really cat-like 

 toe-nails ; and by their aid the little ducklings, while yet bits 



