I 
lo The Natural History of British Ducks 
restore it to life. But in vain ; its little feet could only helplessly paddle in 
the air, and so, as a last resource, she tenderly picked it up in her bill, 
swam ashore and gently placed it on the grass. Though by this time the 
duckling was quite dead, the kind-hearted rescuer continued to push it gently, 
and occasionally lift it with her bill, while quacking loudly, and exhibiting all 
the tenderness and solicitude of a mother for her lost child. At last, finding 
her efforts at restoration were of no avail, she walked sorrowfully round and 
round the dead body, expressing by piteous flapping of her wings the depth 
of her despair. I am inclined to think the poor thing had lost her own 
brood, for she had all the ' rough ' look of one who has been sitting. 
And now, who can doubt that birds differ in disposition and temperament 
as much as human beings, and that, apparently cruel as some of them are, 
others are endowed with a sense of affection quite touching in its depths of 
constancy? Shall we not say, too, that amongst the feathered tribe the 
criminality of certain actions is as well understood,^ and often as deeply 
resented, as amongst ourselves? For myself, after witnessing such a scene as 
this, and others of widely different character that have come under my notice, 
I cannot possibly entertain a doubt on the subject. 
The life of the wild duck from its earliest infancy, lived as it is under 
conditions eminently favourable to health and hardihood, might lead one to 
suppose that their young would be endowed with greater strength of 
constitution than the chicks of the delicate land fowl ; but such is not the 
case, at any rate in the first few days of life. At this period they are, on the 
contrary, very delicate, and particularly subject to diseases arising from the 
very elements from which the survivors gather their strength ; for, though 
perfectly at home, warm and dry, on the surface of a lake, a cold shower of 
rain or hail will almost as certainly destroy their lives as a charge of shot. 
Knowing this, the mother duck never fails to betray her solicitude for her 
young when, while cruising on the water, they are surprised by a spring 
shower. With all possible speed she makes for the bank, and then, gathering 
^ See page 84. 
