Summer Duck. 207 
manage to make her way into it without suffering bodily 
injuries. But she does, nevertheless, which is an evidence 
that she either knows how to conform to circumstances, or 
is a better judge of dimensions than many of the would-be- 
wise lords of creation. All nests of our finding have been 
wide enough at their mouths to admit of easy passage, and 
have been from four to six feet in vertical direction. Soft 
decayed wood, and a few feathers, doubtless plucked from 
the breast of the builder, were their only contents. Dry 
plants, down, and feathers of the wild turkey, wild goose 
and the common barnyard fowl, have been observed, in addi- 
tion to the foregoing articles, by other writers. The height 
of the entrance above the ground varies from fifteen to thirty 
feet, but probably a less, or even a greater elevation, may 
sometimes be attained. 
Wilson speaks of a nest which he observed in an old gro- 
tesque white oak, which stood on a slope of one of the banks 
of the Tuckahoe River, in New Jersey, just twenty yards 
from the water’s edge, that had been occupied for four con- 
secutive years. At the time of his visit the nest contained 
thirteen young birds, which the maternal head was engaged 
in carrying down to the water to give them, perhaps, their 
first experience in the art of swimming. So carefully, and 
yet so adroitly and quickly, did she perform this seemingly 
difficult task, that she was less than ten minutes in its ac- 
complishment. Although the male usually stands sentry 
while the processes of laying and sitting are going on, and 
signals the approach of enemies by a peculiar cry which has 
been likened to the crowing of a young cock—ce-éék! 
ce-Gék !—yet from the silence of one writer upon the subject 
we infer that the duty of rearing the rather numerous family 
is left to the mother, while he—her friend and consequential 
partner, as though disdaining such ignoble and degrading 
work, because of its slavish character—is off with his gay com- 
panions, disporting themselves in mid-air, or trimming, while 
perched upon some sheltering bough, their rich and varied 
