MALLARD DUCK. 31 



rice. They have been there for perhaps weeks, undis- 

 turbed. Instinct prompts them to lay their eggs, to 

 bring up their young ; it also tells them they should go 

 farther North, far beyond the possibility of human in- 

 terference. But a few dislike leaving a place which 

 they have become attached to, — so they make their 

 nests, lay their eggs and rear their brood. This does 

 not often happen, still it does once in a while. Late 

 in May I have found their nests, and unintentionally 

 routed off the mother bird. Once, while after prairie 

 chickens, my dog drove into the water, from the tall 

 grass at the edge of a large pond, the parent duck with 

 her flock of half -grown youngsters. This was in this 

 county on the first of August, years ago. The color, 

 size and number of the eggs laid are same as tame 

 ducks. The tame or domesticated ducks are descend- 

 ents of these wild mallards. One can see a great 

 similarity at a glance, and a person can select two 

 ducks, one male and one female, from a flock of 

 tame ones, and the most experienced duck shooter 

 cannot tell the difference between the tame and wild 

 ones. 



After they have hatched their young in the far North, 

 and time, practice, and experience have added strength 

 and growth to their young bodies, they are ready to start 

 out with the old ones, returning to their winter homes 

 in the South. They follow the weather, that is, as the 

 days grow cool and frost appears, they go but a slight 

 distance, then stop, feed and rest. The desire to move 

 along, the inherited love of wandering, induces some 

 to move still farther forward. In this way the rivers, 

 ponds and marshes are filled with them in the places 

 where they are known to frequent. At times most ex- 



