Intelligence in Plants and Animals / Being a New Edition of the Author's Privately Issued "Soul and Immortality."

by Thomas G. Gentry

On each recurrence of the mating season there is reason to believe that the same couple come together and pledge anew their fidelity and affection, unless debarred by death, or some other of the many vicissitudes to which life is prone. The troth-plight sealed, and a union effected, the happy couple soon start off in quest of a spot for a home. In the case of old birds the same locality, where no interference has been experienced from beast or man, has been known to be visited for four successive years. For obvious reasons, Wood Ducks delight to live in close proximity to bodies of water, such places affording conveniences to the young, when they are sufficiently matured to betake themselves thither, for food and exercise. Situations remote from water entail unnecessary labor upon the female, who is then required, at considerable risk and peril, to carry them one by one to the pond or stream in her bill. When the distance is not too great, and the ground underneath the nesting-tree is amply covered with dry leaves and grasses, the young scramble to the mouth of the nest, drop themselves down, and under the maternal leadership wend their way to the much-loved fluid. Often the tree or stub which contains their home is found to overshadow the water. All that is necessary then is for the tender little creatures, after reaching the entrance, to spread their ill-feathered pinions and oar-like feet and fling themselves down, a feat which can be performed without jeopardy to life or limb.

SUMMER DUCKS AND YOUNG.
Female Carrying Young in Her Bill from Nest in Hollow Tree.

Almost any tree, or tree-branch, containing the essential hollow, and suitably located, is utilized. Broken branches of high sycamores, seldom more than forty or fifty feet from water, are, according to Audubon, favorite places, while Wilson claims to have met the home of a pair of these birds in a fork composed of branches, and built out of a few rude sticks. In the South, the forsaken retreat of the gray squirrel and the hole of the ivory-billed woodpecker are common nesting-places. Often the entrance to the nest is apparently so small when compared with the bulk of the occupant that it is a matter of surprise to many that she can manage to make her way into it without suffering bodily injuries. But she does, nevertheless, which is an evidence that she either knows how to conform to circumstances, or is a better judge of dimensions than many of the would-be-wise lords of creation. All nests of our finding have been wide enough at their mouths to admit of easy passage, and have been from four to six feet in vertical direction. Soft decayed wood, and a few feathers, doubtless plucked from the breast of the builder, were their only contents. Dry plants, down, and feathers of the wild turkey, wild goose and the common barnyard fowl, have been observed, in addition to the foregoing articles, by other writers. The height of the entrance above the ground varies from fifteen to thirty feet, but probably a less, or even a greater elevation, may sometimes be attained.

Wilson speaks of a nest which he observed in an old grotesque white oak, which stood on a slope of one of the banks of the Tuckahoe River, in New Jersey, just twenty yards from the water’s edge, that had been occupied for four consecutive years. At the time of his visit the nest contained thirteen young birds, which the maternal head was engaged in carrying down to the water to give them, perhaps, their first experience in the art of swimming. So carefully, and yet so adroitly and quickly, did she perform this seemingly difficult task, that she was less than ten minutes in its accomplishment. Although the male usually stands sentry while the processes of laying and sitting are going on, and signals the approach of enemies by a peculiar cry which has been likened to the crowing of a young cock—œ-ēēk! œ-ēēk!—yet from the silence of one writer upon the subject we infer that the duty of rearing the rather numerous family is left to the mother, while he—her friend and consequential partner, as though disdaining such ignoble and degrading work, because of its slavish character—is off with his gay companions, disporting themselves in mid-air, or trimming, while perched upon some sheltering bough, their rich and varied plumage. So intent, however, was the mother-bird upon the faithful discharge of her home-duties, that she heeded not the stately sloop, then nearly completed, as it lay upon the stocks close-by, with its hull looming up within twelve feet of her home, darkened with the presence, and reverberating with the noise of workmen, but continued to pass in and out as though utterly unconscious of the so near approach of danger. Audubon claims that the male deserts the female when the period of sitting commences, and joins his sterner brethren, who unite into flocks of considerable numbers, and keep apart from their partners until the young are fully matured, when young and old of both sexes come together, and thus remain until the return of another breeding-season.

The female, it is evident from what has just been said, assumes the entire charge of incubation. For more than twenty-one days she is thus busied, with nothing, it would seem, to relieve the monotony of her task. How often she despairs and bewails the hardship of her lot, none can know. It is the inexorable decree of fate that she should perform the duties alone and unassisted, and most willingly she submits. But the ennui of the labor is, in a measure, forgotten in the vision that hope holds out to her patience, for her persistent assiduity is ultimately rewarded by a whole nest-full of happy ducklings. While the hatching process is going on the patient housewife only leaves the nest when pressed by the pangs of hunger, and but for a short time. Before leaving, however, she takes the precaution to see that her creamy-white, elliptical treasures, to the number of ten or thirteen eggs, are carefully covered with down.

Like the young of our domesticated species, the little Wood Ducks follow the mother almost as soon as they are hatched, and gather whatever of vegetable and insect food they happen to encounter. They are passionately fond of the water, and best show their real character when gracefully floating upon its glassy bosom, or diving into its azure depths. At an early age they respond to the parent’s call with a soft and mellow pee, pee, pee-e, which is uttered quite rapidly, and at repeated intervals. The call of the mother, when addressing the young at such times, is rather low and soft, and resembles that of the young, being only a little more prolonged.

These beautiful birds have often been domesticated. They become at such times so unsuspicious and familiar as to allow themselves to be stroked by the hand. No handsomer bird could be chosen for introduction into our yards. The male, some nineteen inches in length, and with a scope of wing of two and one-third feet, is a being of no mean proportions. But it is the richness and variety of his colors that render him an object of admiration. A conspicuous green and purple crest adorns his head, while the sides, which are iridescent purple, are relieved of their monotony by a streak of white from base of bill to occiput, and by another, back of the eye, of a pure white color, which is continuous with that of the throat. The sides and front of the lower neck and the forepart of the breast are a bright chestnut, with five white spots, while the lower parts are generally white. Beautifully iridescent metallic hues set off the upper surfaces of the wings, which show most effectively in the blaze of the noonday sun. To the female nature has not been, it would seem to the casual observer, quite so propitious. Her grayish head, with lengthened hind-feathers, white throat, brownish-yellow fore-neck, upper breast and sides, striped with grayish and generally dark-brown upper parts, glossed chiefly with purple, contrast most markedly with the rich, gorgeous attire of her other half. While less showy in dress and lacking the dignity of demeanor that characterizes her lord, she is none the less fitted to perform her part in the drama of life. Her dress, sober in color, and with just enough of ornament to relieve the oppressiveness of its sameness, is so accordant with her home-surroundings as to afford her the protection and security she requires in the trying and perilous duties of brood-raising.

AMERICAN WOODCOCK.

Quite as interesting in habits is the American Woodcock, the Philohela minor of Gray, which belongs to the grallatorial, rather than to the natatorial, family of birds. In distribution he is somewhat restricted, differing in this respect from his numerous congeneric brethren, which have a wide dispersion. He is chiefly a denizen of the eastern parts of the United States, and of the British territory immediately adjacent. Fort Rice, in north-western Dakota, and Kansas and Nebraska in the West, appear to be the limits of his range in these directions. In the Middle and Eastern States Woodcocks are found in greater abundance than anywhere else. While the bulk pass North to breed, a few remain in the South and raise their happy little families in spite of the ardor of the climate.