NESTS, NESTING AND NESTLINGS 



341 



you can, one soli- 

 tary duck faith- 

 fully striving to 

 attend to the wants 

 of from sixty to 

 seventy ducklings, 

 all excitedly wad- 

 dling after her ! 

 When on the pond 

 her plump body is 

 the focus over half 

 a h u n d r e d tiny 

 ke s, 



w 



streaming 



behind her like the 

 tail of a comet ; and 

 at night she is al- 

 most lifted from the 

 ground and cover jcl 

 by the hosts of 

 sleeping balls of 

 down. The actual 

 transfer and adop- 

 tion of ducklings 

 has never been ob- 

 served, but the re- 

 sults are none the 

 less remarkable. 

 Even on the first 

 day of the change 



the youngsters are as young little brown 

 devoted to their new crane ( Alaska) 

 commonwealth parent B y Al f red A - Dunh "™ 

 as they were the day be- 

 fore to their several respective mothers 

 A great many birds are contented 

 to be dwellers on the ground floor ; 

 in other words to make their homes 

 close to the earth, but dangers are 

 many in such places and in all we find 

 some special protection. The whit- 

 ish eggs of grebe or duck would stand 

 but little chance if the parent bird did 

 not cover them carefully before leav- 

 ing the nest ; but what about the 

 ruffed grouse, or the wild turkey, 

 whose light-colored eggs are placed 

 in open nests upon the ground? Na- 

 ture has steeped the feathers of these 

 birds in an essence of moss and leaves 

 and lichens, until the grays and the 

 browns and buffs of their plumage 

 puzzle the keenest eyes. And to the 

 grouse has been given such confi- 

 dence in this resemblance s that the 



bird will crouch 

 close to her eggs, 

 almost until your 

 hand is upon her. 

 It would seem as if 

 she never left them, 

 even for food. 



Not so the sand- 

 ed ing and the up- 

 land plovers, 

 w h i c h carelessly 

 eave their quartet 

 of speckled beauties 

 m the heart of some 

 field of grass. But 

 the carelessness is 

 studied and the ne- 

 glect of nest-build- 

 ing reflects no lack 

 of parent love. If 

 you are a skilful art- 

 ist and can paint the 

 lights and shadows 

 of deep grass, you 

 will find your imita- 

 tion less realistic than 

 the spots and splash- 

 es of color on the 

 eggs of the sander- 

 ling — only bits of drift- 

 ing withered leaves. 



But all of these 

 birds have this ad- 

 vantage : the yoUng when hatched are 

 covered with down and in a very 

 few hours are able to run about. 

 Strange to say, they almost instantly 

 leave the nest. Hardly is their down 

 dry when the young grouse or 'piper 

 or duck, scurries or totters off through 

 the grass and never returns. The 

 brood keeps together and when night 

 comes the mother hovers them wher- 

 ever they happen to be. But a far 

 harder task is before the ground 

 nesting sparrow or thrush. The 

 blind, featherless nestlings require 

 days of careful brooding and feeding, 

 and not only must the parents con- 

 ceal their frequent trips to and from 

 the nest, but at the approach of dan- 

 ger, they must signal to the nestlings, 

 so that, from wriggling, eager crea- 

 tures, with gaping yellow mouths, 



idbl 



1ST 



