Summer Duck. 207 



manage to make her way into it without suffering bodily 

 injuries. But she does, nevertheless, which is an evidence 

 that she either knows how to conform to circumstances, or 

 is a better judge of dimensions than many of the would-be- 

 wise lords of creation. All nests of our finding have been 

 wide enough at their mouths to admit of easy passage, and 

 have been from four to six feet in vertical direction. Soft 

 decayed wood, and a few feathers, doubtless plucked from 

 the breast of the builder, were their only contents. Dry 

 plants, down, and- feathers of the wild turkey, wild goose 

 and the common barnyard fowl, have been observed, in addi- 

 tion to the foregoing articles, by other writers. The height 

 of the entrance above the ground varies from fifteen to thirty 

 feet, but probably a less, or even a greater elevation, may 

 sometimes be attained. 



Wilson speaks of a nest which he observed in an old gro- 

 tesque white oak, which stood on a slope of one of the banks 

 of the Tuckahoe River, in New Jersey, just twenty yards 

 from the water's edge, that had been occupied for four con- 

 secutive years. At the time of his visit the nest contained 

 thirteen young birds, which the maternal head was engaged 

 in carrying down to the water to give them, perhaps, their 

 first experience in the art of swimming. So carefully, and 

 yet so adroitly and quickly, did she perform this seemingly 

 difficult task, that she was less than ten minutes in its ac- 

 complishment. Although the male usually stands sentry 

 while the processes of laying and sitting are going on, and 

 signals the approach of enemies by a peculiar cry which has 

 been likened to the crowing of a young cock ce-eek! 

 ce-eek ! yet from the silence of one writer upon the subject 

 we infer that the duty of rearing the rather numerous family 

 is left to the mother, while he her friend and consequential 

 partner, as though disdaining such ignoble and degrading 

 work, because of its slavish character is off with his gay com- 

 panions, disporting themselves in mid-air, or trimming, while 

 perched upon some sheltering bough, their rich and varied 



