ORNAMENTAL WATERFOWL, 19 
a bottle should be placed at the water’s edge thoroughly 
concealed with foliage, or partially buried among stones and 
pieces of rock. The little water houses to which Mr. Jamrach 
previously alludes are often very acceptable as breeding places 
to the small kind of ducks. These may be made either 
square or round, thatched or boarded over, according to the 
taste of the fancier, the essential point being that the floor 
board be above water level, and that the only entrance, turned 
towards the water, should be approached by a slanting board 
furnished with cross-pieces which the ducks can easily ascend. 
‘The breeding season for many ducks commences about 
the end of March, when the females will begin to form their 
nests, and having made them, to furnish them with the down 
from their own breasts, with which they will cover the eggs in 
the intervals of incubation. 
Sheldrakes will probably seek a hole or burrow in which 
to nest. An artificial sand bank or mound of earth should 
be prepared with convenient cavities at different levels which 
they will appropriate and arrange to their own liking. 
Some of the fancy ducks, especially if fairly tame, will 
take to any little house near which they have been accustomed 
to be fed, and will there lay a nest full of eggs. A Spotted-bill 
duck in my possession installed herself in a nest of straw 
which I had prepared in a house with boarded floor, and there 
deposited nine eggs, to which a Rosy-bill added two. 
It is important when setting the eggs of waterfowl under 
hens to remember that the duck covers her eggs on leaving 
the nest, as also does the goose. So that it is best, if not 
absolutely needful, to imitate Nature in this respect, and to 
place a piece of light wollen material over the eggs, when the 
hen leaves them to feed. The decision as to whether the 
ducks should be allowed to sit on their own eggs, or whether 
