River and Pond Ducks 



no doubt, proud of his energetic busy mate, but doubtless most 

 proud of himself. Wood ducks become exceedingly attached to 

 their home. They return year after year to the same hole to nest, 

 regardless of approaching civilization, the diversion of a water 

 course for factory purposes, the whistle of the locomotive. It is 

 the gunner alone who drives them to a more secluded asylum. 

 On the outskirts of villages these ducks often fearlessly enter the 

 barnyard to pick up the poultry's grain ; and there are plenty of 

 instances where they have been successfully domesticated. 



In July the drake withdraws to moult his bridal garments, 

 leaving his overworked mate to lead the ducklings about on land 

 and water in quest of seeds of plants, wild oats or rice, roots 

 of aquatic vegetables, acorns, and numerous kinds of insects. 

 The small coleoptera that skips and flies so nimbly along the 

 surface of still inland waters, among the sedges and the lily pads, 

 is ever a favorite morsel, a fact that testifies to the expert swim- 

 ming of this duck. By September the drake comes out from his 

 exile clad in plumage resembling the duck's, but still more bril- 

 liant than hers, and retaining the white throat markings. As the 

 young birds have been gradually shedding their down through 

 the summer and putting on feathers like their mother's, the family 

 likeness in each individual is now most marked. Wood ducks, 

 if ever gregarious, are so in autumn, when flocks begin to assem- 

 ble early for the southern migration; but at the north we see 

 only family parties preparing for the journeys that are made at 

 twilight and by night, although in the south we hear of com- 

 panies sometimes numbering a hundred or more. Unhappily, 

 their sweet, tender flesh is in a demand exceeding the legitimate 

 supply in every state they pass through. 



' ' The wood duck is far too beautiful a bird to be killed for 

 food. Its economic value is too small to be worth a moment's 

 consideration," says Mr. Shields. "I would as soon think of 

 killing and eating a Baltimore oriole or a scarlet tanager as a 

 wood duck, and 1 hope to see the day when the latter will be 

 protected all the year round by the laws of all the states in the 

 Union and of all the provinces of Canada." 



"3 



