THE DUCKLING 
the eggs. Mrs. Duck rarely leaves her nest more 
than once or twice in the day. Before she does so, 
her mate takes several flights to see that there is no 
lurking danger. As the days pass and her brood is 
nearly hatched, the faithful mother will not stir from 
the nest. When twenty days are over, the eggs 
chip, and the tiny Ducklings appear. They are 
flu^ little creatures, something like chickens, but 
their bills are longer and broader, and their feet are 
webbed. Often a sitting of Duck’s eggs has been 
placed under a Hen, and then she has a terrible fright 
when her brood takes to the water. On the other 
hand, a Duck hatched a Hen’s egg which had been 
placed among her own, and when she found that the 
little creature would not take to the water like the 
Ducklings, she pushed him in and he was drowned. 
When Mrs. Duck builds in a tree she is sup- 
posed to carry her young ones down to the ground 
by her beak. An Eider Duck, whose home is always 
near the sea, was noticed one day to be leading her 
brood to a cliflF which stood between her and the 
water. As there was quite fifteen feet of sheer rock, 
the onlooker ran quickly to see how the Ducklings 
would manage. They walked to the edge and then 
M 89 
