Ducks, GEESE, AND SWANS. 
are thereby rendered less conspicuous. With the return of the power 
of flight, however, they regain their distinctive, male plumage, which 
is usually brighter than that of the female. With our Geese and Swans 
there is no sexual difference in color. 
Most of our Ducks and Geese breed in the north, some within the 
Arctic Circle, and winter from the southern limit of frozen water south- 
ward. The American Merganser, Hooded Merganser, Wood Duck, 
Buffle-head, Golden-Eyes, Tree Ducks, and possibly Harlequin Duck 
nest in hollow trees, at times some distance from the water. The 
young of the American Golden-eye and of the Wood Duck have been 
seen to reach the water by jumping from the nest-hole and fluttering 
down in response to the calls of the parent below. It is said that they 
are also brought down in the bill of the old bird, but this statement 
apparently lacks confirmation. 
The remaining species of our Ducks, Geese, and Swans, nest as a 
rule, on the ground generally near water. From five to fifteen and, in 
the case of the Fulvous Tree Duck, possibly as many as thirty eggs are 
laid. Incolor they vary from white to buffy and pele olive and are al- 
ways uniformly colored. Incubation is performed by the female alone. 
The males at this period among most Ducks deserting their mate to un- 
dergo the partial molt before mentioned. While incubating the females 
surround their nest with soft down plucked from their bodies and when 
leaving the nest to feed, this down is drawn over the eggs with the 
double object, doubtless, of concealing them and of keeping them 
warm. 
With Eider Ducks this down constitutes the larger part of, if not 
the entire nest. Saunders states that in Iceland the down in each nest 
weighs about one-sixth of apound. This is gathered by the natives, 
who, however, are careful to afford the sitting bird an opportunity to 
raise her brood without further molestation. 
The collection of Eider down thus furnishes an admirable illustra- 
tion of proper economic relations between man and birds. The down 
is an important source of income to the natives of the comparatively 
barren, northern countries in which the Eiders nest. So long as man 
can remember it has been gathered annually. Still the Ducks con- 
tinue to return in numbers year after year to the same region, per- 
haps the exact spot in which they nested the year before. 
Less intelligent methods would perhaps rob the bird of its second, as 
well as of its first nest and, unable to reproduce its kind, the species 
would become extinct within a comparatively short period. 
The evils‘which would follow such a course are, however, thorough- 
ly understood. The Ducks, in the first place, are encouraged in every 
way. It is said that should one walk into a peasant’s cabin and pre- 
empthis cot as a nesting-site, the peasant would gladly give up his bed 
to so valuable a visitor. 
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