320 
Wild Ducks breed in the neighbourhood 
of many of our rivers and broads, generally 
preferring the most sequestered morasses or 
bogs, far from the haunts of man, and 
hidden from his sight among reeds and 
rushes. When she has chosen her place 
for nidification she merely collects a suf- 
ficient quantity of such vegetables as lay 
contiguous to form herself a nest, this she 
carefully lines with down, and deposits 
from ten, to eighteen eggs of a bluish 
white colour, when she leaves her nest she 
carefully covers her eggs with part of the 
down. The young take the water as soon 
as hatched, which is usual in May ; but 
the growth of their wings is very slow, and 
they are unable to fly before August. 
To her young unfledged family, she is a 
fond, attentive, and watchful parent, car- 
rying or leading them from one pool to 
another as her fears or inclinations direct 
her, and she is known in this country to 
use the same wily stratagems to mislead 
the sportsman and his dogs as those we 
intend noticing respecting the Partridge, 
It must be observed that the duck does 
