244 THE WILD DUCK 



The mother, I would remark, sits on her eggs 

 so close and so fearlessly, and her dull dead plumage 

 so nearly resembles the dull dead herbage around 

 her, that, even when you are sure of the position of 

 the nest to within a yard or two, and have frequently 

 visited it before, you have often to look long before 

 you re-discover it, perhaps, by catching sight of 

 the eye ; and, sometimes, you cannot find it at all, till 

 the old bird helps you, by getting up from right 

 between your feet. It is noteworthy also that, in 

 not a few instances, the wild duck has been 

 observed so far to depart from her usual habits, 

 as to place her nest high up in a tree, some twenty- 

 five feet from the ground, and, sometimes, even to lay 

 her eggs in the deserted eyrie of a crow or sparrow- 

 hawk. In such cases, we must conclude that the 

 mother carries her eager, bustling, hustling young 

 ones to the ground, one by one, as soon as they 

 are born, in her broad, soft bill. 



As soon as the duck begins to sit, she begins 

 also to pluck the soft dark down from her breast ; 

 and this, as the process of incubation proceeds, 

 rises round her, as she sits, like a boa of the most 

 velvet eider-down. When she leaves her nest, she 

 carefully spreads the down over her eggs, partly 

 for the purpose of concealment, but still more, I 



