I/O 
NATURE NOTES. 
engaged another keeper in conversation, and asked him if the 
ducks carried their 5’oung in their mouths, to which he naively 
replied, “ \\’ell, we never sees them do it that way ; they 
always kicks them out of the nest and then leads them to the 
pond. I have seen them do it many a time.” He told me that 
two naturalists who did not believe in ducks’ building in trees, 
had come to the gardens to make enquiries. They took 
them to a famous old tree stump at the head of the Serpen- 
tine, on the top of which they knew they would be sure to find 
a nest, and one gentleman on reaching the top of the ladder 
was convinced in a somewhat rough manner, for the old bird 
in fl3’ing from her nest knocked his hat off. 
After this testimony I was satisfied of the truth of what had 
been told me ; there is after all nothing very wonderful in the 
ducklings falling twent}^ feet to the ground unhurt, for when 
just hatched their bones are not yet hardened and they are 
little else than balls of wool. Some are hurt, however, as we have 
seen, but it is possible that almost an equal number are hurt on 
being turned out of the nests on level ground. 
The theory of a duck carrying her brood one by one for a 
distance of sometimes a hundred yards in her mouth or on her 
back or in any such way becomes, on reflection, untenable ; the 
little things being left by themselves in the water would be 
exposed to many dangers. So the keeper’s story is true ; but 
of the millions that wander in the London parks how many 
have realized the above simple facts ? 
Giles A. D.a.ubeny. 
ODE TO AUTUMN. 
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness ! 
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun ; 
Conspiring with him how to load and bless 
^^'ith fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run ; 
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees. 
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core ; 
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells 
With a sweet kernel ; to set budding more 
And still more, later flowers for the bees. 
Until the}^ think warm da^’S will never cease ; 
For Summer has o’erbrimm’d their clamm}- cells. 
Who hath not seen thee oft amid th}' store ? 
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad ma^- find 
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor. 
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind ; 
Or on a half reap’d furrow sound asleep. 
Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook 
