208 Life and Immortality. 
plumage. So intent, however, was the mother-bird upon the 
faithful discharge of her home-duties, that she heeded not the 
stately sloop, then nearly completed, as it lay upon the 
stocks close-by, with its hull looming up within twelve feet 
of her home, darkened with the presence, and reverberating 
with the noise of workmen, but continued to pass in and out 
as though utterly unconscious of the so near approach of 
danger. Audubon claims that the male deserts the female 
when the period of sitting commences, and joins his sterner 
brethren, who unite into flocks of considerable numbers, and 
keep apart from their partners until the young are fully ma- 
tured, when young and old of both sexes come together, and 
thus remain until the return of another breeding-season. 
The female, it is evident from what has just been said, 
assumes the entire charge of incubation. For more than 
twenty-one days she is thus busied, with nothing, it would 
seem, to relieve the monotony of her task. How often she 
despairs and bewails the hardship of her lot, none can know. 
It is the inexorable decree of fate that she should perform 
the duties alone and unassisted, and most willingly she sub- 
mits. But the exuz of the labor is, in a measure, forgotten 
in the vision that hope holds out to her patience, for her per- 
sistent assiduity is ultimately rewarded by a whole nest-full 
of happy ducklings. While the hatching process is going 
on the patient housewife only leaves the nest when pressed 
by the pangs of hunger, and but for a short time. Before 
leaving, however, she takes the precaution to see that her 
creamy-white, elliptical treasures, to the number of ten or 
thirteen eggs, are carefully covered with down. 
Like the young of our domesticated species, the little 
Wood Ducks follow the mother almost as soon as they are 
hatched, and gather whatever of vegetable and insect food 
they happen to encounter. They are passionately fond of 
the water, and best show their real character when gracefully 
floating upon its glassy bosom, or diving into its azure 
depths. At an early age they respond to the parent’s call 
