ve devised for her. The only thing then to be done is to leave her
alone until she has settled down to lay steadily, when you can
gradually introduce pieces of broom, &c., so as to shelter her nest as
much as possible from wind and rain, taking care to leave the entrance
to the nest clear. Young ducks as a rule are the most shy, and you will
generally find the older birds only too glad to avail themselves of the
well-sheltered nests that you have provided for them.

Nothing can be better for ducks to nest in than the corners of an
outhouse or old stable, always provided that you have killed off the
rats.

In such places wind and rain can do no harm, and practically every egg
hatches out.

The roots of hollow willow trees are favourite nesting places, but a bit
dangerous if too near the water's edge. Many birds delight in straw
stacks, and if disturbed will simply go up higher, so as to be out of
the way of cattle or human beings.

I believe that if you can get your birds to nest in outhouses or stacks,
you will get a much better hatch out than elsewhere. Last year one of my
ducks took off all her sixteen eggs safely from the corner of a stable,
and a bird sitting close to her hatched eleven, without a single bad
egg; and we had almost as good results from birds nesting in stacks.

One bird, after being disturbed from her nest in the side of a stack,
built at the top, and quite twenty feet from the ground. One fine
morning we found her with fourteen young ducklings, and she appeared
much annoyed at the assistance which we gave to the family to descend.

If the weather is dry and your nests are well situated, your birds
nesting outside may do as well as those described above; but given a
week of cold wind and penetrating wet, down goes your average at once.

Last season was a particularly favourable one, and from the first five
nests (all sat upon by ducks) no less than sixty-five ducklings hatched
out--a highest possible. Naturally this extraordinary percentage was not
maintained. We will now suppose that the ducks have begun to lay, an
event which may take place any time from the middle of February to the
middle of March, after which date they ought to be laying steadily. As
they will lay many more eggs than they can successfully hatch, pick up
some eggs at intervals from the nests, taking care always to leave two
or three in each nest. These eggs should be placed on a large tray or
shallow box, lined with hay, s