. Birds of America;. Birds -- North America. :*i^ Photo by H. K. Jub MALE WOOD DUCK In one case which I witnessed, a Golden-eye, emerging from quite a narrow slit, had fairly to wriggle from side to side to force its way out. After the nesting season the Wood Ducks are seen in small flocks, probably family parties. They frequent the wooded swamps, and fiy out to the more open ponds and streams about dusk. Where dead trees or branches have fallen into water, a typical sight, to be witnessed by creejiing very silently through the bushes, is a row of these beautiful Ducks standing on the fallen t
. Birds of America;. Birds -- North America. :*i^ Photo by H. K. Jub MALE WOOD DUCK In one case which I witnessed, a Golden-eye, emerging from quite a narrow slit, had fairly to wriggle from side to side to force its way out. After the nesting season the Wood Ducks are seen in small flocks, probably family parties. They frequent the wooded swamps, and fiy out to the more open ponds and streams about dusk. Where dead trees or branches have fallen into water, a typical sight, to be witnessed by creejiing very silently through the bushes, is a row of these beautiful Ducks standing on the fallen timber enjoying the sunshine, some asleep, with bills under the wing-coverts, others preening their feathers, but all appearing very well contented with their lot in life. This bird was classed by the Government as one of our vanishing species. This aroused widespread concern, and caused a number of States to prohibit shooting for terms of years; ours, in that it breeds nearly all over our national domain, from north to south, and in winter it mostly remains within our borders. More than any other Duck it is a woodland bird. It frequents ponds and streams which are bordered by woods, and makes excursions, a-wing or a- foot, or both, back from water into the real woods, where it devours nuts, as well as what- ever insect or other small life it encounters. 1 have examined specimens, taken in the fall, which had their crops completely filled with whole acorns. Such a meal, surely, should " stand by " for a long time! The regular natural nesting site is in a hollow tree, preferably in the woods, and it is often quite a distance back from water. Owing to the increasing scarcity of large hollow trees, these Ducks seem at times hard pressed to find suit- able locations. On a farm in Connecticut back from a pond, an old apple tree growing in a pig-pen by the barn was cut down, and, in chopping open a hollow branch, eleven eggs of the Wood Duck were discovered, though never had
Size: 1246px × 2006px
Photo credit: © Library Book Collection / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorpearsont, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, bookyear1923
