36 



THE OOLOGIST 



•when she leaves the nest she covers 

 the eggs with decayed wood or leaves. 

 After the eggs are all layed, she downs 

 the nest inside. I have seen many 

 beautiful nests, but nothing to com- 

 pare with a Wood duck's. The down 

 is placed around the eggs in a per- 

 fect roll and as you look down on 

 them from above, they are seen 

 through a cloud of down, but this soon 

 gets scattered. I have found many 

 nests by seeing the down clinging to 

 the trunk near the hole. In those 

 days, they had only their natural ene- 

 mies to contend with, and brought out 

 broods of from seven to fourteen. 

 They used to trouble my spring trap- 

 ping, getting into the traps I had set 

 for musk rats. I would release them 

 when I thought they would live. 



One Spring an Indian camped on my 

 trapping ground; it was too late to 

 trap, but I suppose the Indian did not 

 think so. One day I found two traps 

 he had set on a muskrat house and a 

 duck and drake had been caught. 

 They were alive and had evidently 

 been in but a few minutes. I soon re- 

 leased them; they were not injured 

 in the least, the Indian lost his din- 

 ner, and I probably saved one brood 

 of ducks. 



In 1869 I sent Mr. Edmund Rick- 

 secker of Nazareth, Pa., two dozen 

 eggs for breeding. I give the follow- 

 ing extract form his letter. "About 

 my pets, the Summer Ducks raised 

 from your eggs, I must say a few 

 words. When I come home home from 

 the field I look for them. They know 

 me very well, they are that tame, and 

 at the same time wild; for they do not 

 allow me to touch them, but when hun- 

 gry will eat bread from my hand, and 

 when called at feeding time, will come 

 just as tame fowls do. I have a large 

 tub filled with water with sand on bot- 

 tom in which they frolic. They will 

 dive down and sputter about at a great 



rate. It is very amusing to see them 

 act in the water. Their wings are 

 nearly grown and they begin to jump 

 on a box or step and then make a trial 

 at flying; but the flight is very short 

 so far. I am watching them closely, 

 and as soon as I think it necessary, I 

 will be obliged to chp their wings, or 

 they will soon fly away. They are 

 beautiful and I should not like to loose 

 them." 



In 1870 I placed eggs of the Wood 

 duck under a hen and every egg 

 hatched. I had no trouble in raising 

 them. I think I could have raised a 

 hundred birds that season. At that 

 time the Cedar River had large beds 

 of clams. These clams chopped fine 

 made the best of food for them. In 

 winter I fed them on corn and they 

 wintered in fine shape. In April I gave 

 them their freedom; for some time 

 they kept near home; but at last the 

 love for the wilderness was too strong 

 for them. One day in the following 

 autumn, a pair flew into the yard, lin- 

 gered a few minutes and then away; 

 and that was the last I saw of them. 



These ducks were so common in the 

 Cedar River valley at one time that I 

 have counted fifty of them sitting on a 

 fence at the edge of a wheat field. 

 Here in the Willamette Valley, Ore- 

 gon, they are not very common, but 

 I have seen the young and know that 

 they breed here. The Forest and 

 Stream calls them a vanishing, game 

 bird, but as they have so successful- 

 ly been domesticated, they will not 

 disappear entirely. 



In 1905 I visited my old collecting- 

 ground in the Cedar River valley, 

 Iowa. The tree from which I had 

 taken the thirty-six duck eggs was still 

 standing, but not a duck to be seen. 

 There was once the most beautiful 

 forest I have ever seen. I have found 

 over one hundred species of birds 

 breeding on one section of land, but 

 forests and birds are gone forever. 

 George D. Peck. 



