. [Articles about birds from National geographic magazine]. Birds. Photograph by \V. J. Jaycock A HAPPY FAMILY Of MALLARDS Probable ancestor of the common barnyard Duck and most numerous and popular of our American "quackers" is the Mallard. Feeding almost entirely on vegetable matter and with a special penchant for wild rice when available, it constitutes food par excellence. times the same pair remain united and raise two or three broods in a season. Again, they remate indiscriminately. Or- dinarily, only two sets of eggs are laid and two broods raised, but if one set is de- stroye
. [Articles about birds from National geographic magazine]. Birds. Photograph by \V. J. Jaycock A HAPPY FAMILY Of MALLARDS Probable ancestor of the common barnyard Duck and most numerous and popular of our American "quackers" is the Mallard. Feeding almost entirely on vegetable matter and with a special penchant for wild rice when available, it constitutes food par excellence. times the same pair remain united and raise two or three broods in a season. Again, they remate indiscriminately. Or- dinarily, only two sets of eggs are laid and two broods raised, but if one set is de- stroyed a third may be laid. Sometimes the male remains and assists the female in feeding and caring for the young ; at other times he promptly deserts the family. One remarkable outcome of these stud- ies of Wrens during a period of years is that not in a single instance has any mating between parents and their banded young occurred. Father and son occa- sionally take the same wife at different times, but apparently there is no mixing of close blood relatives. This is an unex- pected situation, in view of the general mixing up of the individuals of the species in areas where they are as plentiful as at Hillcrest. What becomes of the surplus young hatched in a locality is still an unsolved problem. Comparatively few of the young Wrens banded at Hillcrest are retaken in succeeding years. Observations of the banded birds indicate that, as soon as they leave the nest, the mother leads them off to a considerable distance instead of keeping them about the vicinity where they were hatched. This may be Nature's method of insur- ing the dispersal of the increase and pre- venting undue accumulation of individuals in one locality. The abundance of birds in any area commonly depends upon the food supply, and if the young were all to return to the vicinity of their birthplace the evils of overpopulation would soon arise. The fact that most birds appear merely to hold their own year by year, whil
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