A BRAVE DUCK

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 24 August 1935, Page 10

A BRAVE DUCK

PACED WOUNDED RAT A man in Suffolk, England, had a black duck which hatched out 13 young ones. One evening when he was feeding them by the side of the pond in his garden, a large rat came out of a hole nearby. The man ran for his gun, and while waiting to shoot, he noticed that the duck kept her eye on the hole. Five times the rat came out and tried to get where the ducklings weto feeding, and each time the old duck drove it off. At last she removed her family to the middle of the pond, and he was able to shgot the rat, which measured over 17 inches from tail to nose. He waited to see if another would appear, and presently a younger rat made its appearance. But he only wounded it, and as it was trying, to get back to its hole the duck sjiw it, made a frantie rush across the pond, picked ,it up in its bill, and rushed with it to the middle of the pond, where she drowned it! She must have had a nasty bite or two, for she had blood on her head when she joined her frightened family. Many dogs will not faee a wounded Tat, yet this homely duck could both face and kill one when she had her family to defend.