IV 



THE WIT OF A DUCK 



THE homing instinct in birds and animals is one 

 of their most remarkable traits: their strong 

 local attachments and their skill in finding their way 

 back when removed to a distance. It seems at times 

 as if they possessed some extra sense — the home 

 sense — which operates unerringly. I saw this illus- 

 trated one spring in the case of a mallard drake. 



My son had two ducks, and to mate with them 

 he procured a drake of a neighbor who lived two 

 miles south of us. He brought the drake home in a 

 bag. The bird had no opportunity to see the road 

 along which it was carried, or to get the general 

 direction, except at the time of starting, when the boy 

 carried him a few rods openly. 



He was placed with the ducks in a spring run, 

 under a tree in a secluded place on the river slope, 

 about a hundred yards from the highway. The two 

 ducks treated him very contemptuously. It was 

 easy to see that the drake was homesick from the 

 first hour, and he soon left the presence of the 

 scornful ducks. 



Then we shut the three in the barn together, 

 53 



