340 



RECREATION 



plunges off head-first. Or he may 

 leap upon his mother's back and 

 thus ride proudly forth into the world, 

 exchanging the soaked, decayed 

 leaves of his cradle for her feathers. 

 Leaving the shallows of the lake 

 and passing to firmer ground in the 

 nearby marshes, we find where the 

 wild ducks have made their home, 

 after their world's end wanderings. 

 Here the brown garbed duck rounds 

 out a grassy hollow, lining it with the 

 softest down in the world, plucked 

 from her own breast. But she too 

 must leave her treasures to snatch 

 hasty mouthfuls of succulent roots ; 

 and lest any evil eye may find them, 

 she, and her mate too, add beakfuls 

 of their breast feathers. When the 

 bird slips from her eggs, she unrolls 

 the gray and white coverlet of down 

 and draws it carefully over them. 

 A hungry crow or gull passing over, 

 looks searchingly down, but the patch 

 of dull feathers is not worth a second 

 glance. Thus by the care of the 

 gentle mother, the little ducklings 

 within the shell know naught of chill 

 or danger. 



NEST OF HELL DIVER 



Truly the ways of birds are as 

 varied as our own. Qur nearest hu- 

 man neighbor, living in a house fash- 

 ioned like ours, may decorate it with 

 opposite taste ; the little grebes are 

 happy and content on a mat of 

 slime ; the ducklings twenty feet 

 away are born upon a bed of softest 

 down. 



While there is left a grove of trees, 

 or a marsh, and until vacations be- 

 come an obsolete custom, we need 

 never fear the lack of new facts to 

 be sought for and discovered ; for 

 birds are ever doing new and unex- 

 pected things. For a year or two 

 after the wild mallard ducks had be- 

 gun to breed in the New York Zoolo- 

 gical Park, nothing unusual was no- 

 ticed in their habits, but lately the 

 birds have united each year in what 

 we may call a "nursery trust." Five 

 or six ducks raise large broods early 

 in the year and when the ducklings 

 are about a week old, they are all 

 turned over to the care of one of the 

 mother ducks, while the others begin 

 forthwith to lay more eggs and to 

 hatch out second broods. Imagine if 



By W. Stark 





