BIRDS OF THE UNITED STATES. 
123 
This doubtless is the rule where the birds are permitted to obey their own 
natural instincts uninterfered with by beast or man. For obvious reasons, 
these Ducks delight to live in close proximity to bodies of water. Such 
places afford conveniences to the young when they are sufficiently matured 
to betake themselves thither. Situations remote from this element entail 
unnecessary labor upon the female, who is then required, at considerable 
risk and trouble, to carry them one by one in her bill. When the 
distance is not too great, and the ground beneath the tree is well covered 
with dried leaves and grasses, the young scramble to the mouth of the 
nest, drop themselves down, and under the maternal leadership wend their 
way to the much-loved fluid. Often the tree or stub which contains their 
home is found to overshadow the water. All that is necessary then is for 
the tender creatures after reaching the entrance, to spread their ill- 
feathered wings and oar-like feet, and fling themselves down. This feat 
can be performed without jeojiardy to life or limb. 
The site being agreed uj^on to the mutual satisfaction of the parties 
concerned, all that is necessary to be done before going to house-keeping, 
is to select a place for the nest. For this purpose, almost any tree, or 
branch thereof, containing the essential hollow, and located reasonably near 
some stream or expanse of water, can be utilized. According to Audubon, 
“ the holes to which they betake themselves are either over deep swamps, 
above cane-brakes, or on broken branches of high sycamores, seldom more 
than forty or fifty feet from the water.” Our ex 2 Derience, which is similar 
to Wilson’s, is that these birds do not have a partiality for any j^articular 
species. While tree hollows are generally ^Jreferred, we have the authority 
of the illustrious j^ersonages whose names we have just cited for saying 
that such 23laces are not exclusively chosen. The former claims to have 
met with the home of a ^^aii’ of these birds in a Assure of a rock, along 
the Kentucky River, only a few miles from Frankfort; and the latter 
speaks of having discovered one which was placed in a fork comj^osed of 
branches, and built out of a few rude sticks. In the South, the forsaken 
retreat of the Gray Squirrel, or the hole of the Ivory-billed Woodjiecker, 
