20 ORNAMENTAL WATERFOWL. 
these should be confided to hens must depend upon the 
circumstances of the duck-run, and whether there is sufficient 
privacy to ensure the birds not being disturbed should they 
nest in the natural manner. 
In most cases it will be found desirable to adopt the 
surer method and set the valuable eggs under small hens of 
steady disposition, rejecting pullets in their first season. 
Nothing can be more disappointing than to find a rare duck 
chased off her nest by some quarrelsome Muscovy or other 
drake, and the precious eggs, perhaps within a few days of 
hatching broken, partly eaten, or strewn along the bank. To 
deny, however, to the breeding duck the wholesome and 
natural gratification of incubation is imprudent, and sometimes 
tells severely upon the health of delicate birds when the 
moulting season arrives. It is, therefore, a good plan to replace 
valuable eggs taken from her nest by those of the common 
wild-duck or other ordinary breeds, thus permitting to the 
mother the repose which Nature demands after the production 
of her batch of eggs. 
Supposing that the eggs are being incubated by hens, 
it is safest as a rule to remove the young as they hatch, and 
to restore them to the foster-mother when they are quite dry 
and able to stand. I found the little Sultan hen or a Japanese 
bantam the best mother to incubate the eggs of the small and 
rare ducks, such as Wyroca and Fudigule rufine, being good 
sitters, and permitting free handling without taking fright. 
If, however, waterfowl are themselves allowed to sit, 
it is safest not to interfere with the nest until the hatching is 
entirely accomplished, when it will be found advisable to pen 
the mother with her brood inside hurdles or wire netting, in 
which enclosure should be placed a large shallow pan of water 
containing fine gravel and abundance of duckweed, if procurable. 
At the end of a fortnight the young birds may be allowed to 
