Excerpt from The Water-Fowl Family The males Of a number Of varieties of ducks, however, when full-plumaged in the late fall and winter, are unsurpassed in beauty of coloring; an attire that is retained until incubation has begun. About this time, the birds moult, the male assuming a dress more or less closely resembling the female. During the moulting period for a while many of our water-fowl are helpless, the large pinions of the wing having been lost. Now every protection against the depredations of the natives and other enemies is essential, and hence nature's provision in the change of color. The males of many of our water-fowl, after incubation has been estab lished, separate from the females, and gather by themselves on neighboring bodies Of water, where greater security is afforded than the shores and marshes selected for nesting purposes could give. The female attends to all of the duties of nesting and hatching, bringing up the brood, and leading them south when an all-provident nature directs the weary flight. In the different species Of geese and swan both birds divide the duties of nesting. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.