Just a common Duck?
No, I'm not. There is only one other Duck handsomer than I am, and he is
called the Wood Duck. You have heard something about him before. I am a
much smaller Duck, but size doesn't count much, I find when it comes to
getting on in the world--in _our_ world, that is. I have seen a Sparrow
worry a bird four times its size, and I expect you have seen a little
boy do the same with a big boy many a time.
What is the reason I'm not a common Duck?
Well, in the first place, I don't waddle. I can walk just as gracefully
as I can swim. Your barn-yard Duck can't do that. I can run, too,
without getting all tangled up in the grass, and he can't do that,
either. But sometimes I don't mind associating with the common Duck. If
he lives in a nice big barn-yard, that has a good pond, and is fed with
plenty of grain, I visit him quite often.
Where do I generally live?
Well, along the edges of shallow, grassy waters, where I feed upon
grass, seeds, acorns, grapes, berries, as well as insects, worms, and
small snails. I walk quite a distance from the water to get these
things, too.
Can I fly?
Indeed I can, and very swiftly. You can see I am no common Duck when I
can swim, and walk, and fly. _You_ can't do the last, though you can the
first two.
Good to eat?
Well, yes, they say when I feed on rice and wild oats I am perfectly
delicious. Some birds were, you see, born to sing, and flit about in the
trees, and look beautiful, while some were born to have their feathers
taken off, and be roasted, and to look fine in a big dish on the table.
The Teal Duck is one of those birds. You see we are useful as well as
pretty. We don't mind it much if you eat us and say, "what a fine bird!"
but when you call us "tough," that hurts our feelings.
Good for Christmas?
Oh, yes, or any other time--when you can catch us! We fly so fast that
it is not easy to do; and can dive under the water, too, when
wounded.
Something about our nests?
Oh, they are built upon the ground, in a dry tuft of grass and weeds and
lined with feathers. My mate often plucks the feathers from her own
breast to line it. Sometimes she lays ten eggs, indeed once she laid
sixteen.
Such a family of Ducklings as we had that year! You should have seen
them swimming after their mother, and all crying, _Quack, quack, quack!_
like babies as they were.