AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 169 



a considerable height from the ground, and pretty 

 safe from all but human enemies. One of the most 

 remarkable of these cases that has come to my know- 

 ledge was that of a Duck, who, towards the end of 

 April 1886, laid thirteen eggs in a cavity of an elm 

 tree, at about 20 feet from the ground, from which 

 recess three young Tawny Owls had taken their first 

 flight about a week before this Duck took possession ; 

 she hatched out the whole of her laying, and took off 

 her brood safely before the end of May. The nest is 

 generally made of coarse grasses, and lined with a 

 profusion of down from the breast of the parent bird ; 

 the eggs vary in number from 8 or 9 to 14. The 

 young birds soon follow their mother to quiet and 

 sheltered spots near water, where she tends them 

 with the greatest care, and leads them out to feed in 

 the early morning and at dusk ; the young broods 

 are seldom really strong on the wing till towards the 

 end of July, often not till considerably later. In 

 May the old drakes begin to change their brilliant 

 plumage for a dingy dress much resembling, but 

 generally darker than, that of the females ; at this 

 season of the year the male birds congregate together 

 in the most secluded and overgrown marshy places, 

 and as the quill or flight-feathers of their wings are 

 dropped within a very short time, they remain totally 

 incapable of flight for some weeks during the height 

 of summer, and do not regain their full beauty till 

 October ; before this, however, they have rejoined 

 their families, and resort regularly with them about 

 sunset to the corn-fields and other localities, for the 

 adult Wild Duck is strictly nocturnal in its feeding- 

 habits. At the first streak of daylight the flocks 

 leave their pasturage for the lakes and open waters, 



