re eggs in the nest, as the birds will
soon want to sit. A duck shows signs of this by lining her nest with
down from her breast, and in a short time you will find the whole nest,
sides and bottom, lined with a thick covering of down; while the eggs
are covered by what I can best describe as a thick movable quilt, which
protects them from the cold, and the prying eyes of carrion crows and
other poachers.

At this time you will observe the old duck staying longer and longer on
her nest each day as she lays the last egg or two, and you may be sure
that she has fairly begun to sit if you find her still on her nest about
6 or 7 P.M. A day or two before she begins to sit, her nest should be
made up to its proper complement of eggs, and it is always wise to keep
a few eggs in hand for such contingencies. The number of eggs a duck can
sit on depends largely on the size of the duck and also the depth and
breadth of the nest; given favourable conditions a duck can manage
sixteen or seventeen eggs, and I knew of one nest, consisting of sixteen
eggs, all of which hatched off. There is, however, this risk, that
should bad weather come it is practically impossible for a duck to
successfully brood so large a number as sixteen ducklings, even when her
coop is turned away from the wind and rain; and it is here that large
brooding hens such as the Bufforpington score their strongest point as
mothers to young ducks.

Of one thing you may be sure, a duck will not retain any more eggs in
her nest than she can conveniently cover. I know of one case where a
duck belonging to me was sitting on fifteen eggs. All appeared to be
going well, until one morning a friend of mine, on whose veracity I can
absolutely rely, saw the duck fly from her nest, close to where he was
standing, _with an egg in her bill_.

[Illustration: _W.L. Colls. Ph. Sc._

"_A tidy Mother._"]

She flew to the water, about 150 yards away, apparently without
breaking the egg; but unfortunately my friend could not get up in time
to see what she did with it. She hatched out the rest of her eggs
satisfactorily.

I presume that either the egg in question was cracked and she removed it
for the sake of cleanliness, or because she felt herself unable to sit
on so many eggs.

On many occasions I have noticed an egg left bare on the top of the
downy covering which ducks are so careful to leave over their eggs when
they go off to feed, and these eggs, if taken away and placed u