248 THE WILD DUCK 



and invigorating pursuit of wild and wary birds, 

 where the chances are three to one in favour of the 

 bird. Is it too much to hope that all who read 

 this chapter, if they have any influence at all in the 

 matter, or if they have any love for Nature, or 

 any love for sport, will press for a prolongation of 

 the close time, in all counties alike ? 



The semi-domesticated wild duck, if she is 

 a fond, is not always a wise, mother. In other 

 words, like other mothers, she loves her young 

 ones not wisely, but too well. Throughout the 

 live-long summer day, for reasons best known 

 to herself, she keeps them on the move, hustling 

 them about from one place to another, with an 

 air of fussy maternal importance, and she is pain- 

 fully perturbed if she either sees or hears one of 

 her brood lagging behind the rest. If she sees 

 or hears, I say ; for, unfortunately, with all her 

 wisdom, she cannot count. With her, out of sight 

 and out of hearing is out of mind ; and so, one 

 after another, her nurslings, often quite unnoticed 

 by her, lag behind in sheer exhaustion, and fall 

 victims to the rat or the cat, or tumble into a crack 

 in the ground, or lie down to die, entangled in the 

 tall grass. The brood thus gets small by degrees 

 and anything but beautifully less ; and I used to 



