THE DUCKLINGS 245 



think, of warmth. She is quite intelligent enough 

 to know that a quilt of eider-down is an excellent 

 non-conductor of heat. The male bird, so far as 

 I have observed, never helps her in the process 

 of incubation, nor does he attempt to supply her 

 with food. The absence of so voracious a bird 

 when she does leave the nest for food and she 

 rarely leaves it by day must often be prolonged, 

 and her eggs must infallibly be chilled and rendered 

 useless by the night air, if it were not for the 

 special protection she provides for them. 



While the duck is thus busily engaged, the 

 drake is to be seen disporting himself at his ease, 

 in company with other drakes whose wives are 

 similarly busy, on a neighbouring sheet of water, 

 or he occasionally takes a flight in a wide circle 

 round the nest, quacking as he goes, apparently, 

 much more to assure his wife that all is right with 

 him, than to assure himself that all is right with 

 her. She sits patiently on, for twenty-one long 

 days, plucking more and more down from her body, 

 till her lower parts are almost bereft of feathers. 

 At last, the young are hatched ; and very grace- 

 ful, innocent, little things, covered with dark down, 

 they are. They leave the nest immediately, and 

 are able to run and swim with surprising agility. 



