3986 Birds. 



near the spot. Shortly afterwards the old duck was seen on the pool 

 with the other duck, mourning over their mutual disappointment, as, 

 no doubt, their nests having been made so near to each other, and the 

 two old ducks, often meeting when going in search of food, had 

 talked over the anticipated affairs of the nursery, and the relative 

 merits and beauty of their expectant broods; but, like other fond mo- 

 thers, they were both in this instance doomed to find their hopes de- 

 stroyed. I know not to what cause to attribute the destruction of the 

 last lot of eggs, for upon those in the first nest being missed, I had 

 directed that traps might be set upon some boards elevated above the 

 ground ; the traps were covered over, and a kind of nest made on the 

 top of the trap, and baited with eggs: I therefore fully expected that I 

 should shortly find a felon magpie, crow, or jackdaw in some of them, 

 but after waiting for more than ten days, nothing whatever came to 

 the traps. 



Now, when the weight of a wild duck's egg, containing a young one 

 just ready to be hatched, is considered, it seems almost impossible for 

 any bird to have carried away every one of the twelve eggs, without 

 leaving some marks behind, but nothing of the kind was to be seen ; 

 and from the bait in the traps not having been touched for so long a 

 time, I am disposed to think that the depredator must have been some 

 creeping animal that could not reach the eggs placed in the nest on 

 the trap. But yet, how could such a number as eighteen eggs have 

 been carried away without any being broken, or any track to the nests 

 discovered ? The extraordinary performances attributed to rats in 

 stealing and carrying away eggs are well known ; but I think they 

 could hardly have taken so many without some being broken, or the 

 place to which they were conveyed being discovered ; though cer- 

 tainly there were a good many of both the common house-rat and the 

 brown water-rat, not far off, and both kinds will take eggs, and have 

 frequently been caught in traps baited with eggs. Again, many hedge- 

 hogs are frequently found in the bank where the wild ducks' nests 

 were made, and in the adjacent covers ; and these animals will not 

 disdain to feed on eggs. For although I have said so much on their 

 behalf, as innoxious animals, in a former number of this journal (Zool. 

 715), I felt obliged at last to give up their defence ; but the same dif- 

 ficulty presents itself as to their being able to remove the eggs without 

 leaving some marks behind. 



Of the several broods of young wild ducks already hatched and on 

 the pools, I have not unfrequently to lament the loss of one or more 

 of the ducklings taken by rats and pike ; but the destruction of whole 



