An amusing instance of abduction and adoption by a Paradise duck was related to a Press reporter the other day by the Rev. C. H. Moreland, of Christ's College. An ordinary farmyard duck, the property of a settler in the Matukituki district (North-west Otago) hatched out a brood of ducklings. Contemplation of such domestic felicity apparently aroused a feeling of envy in the breast of the Paradise duck, as during the absence of the mother duck, she conveyed all the ducklings to her own nest some distance away, and mothered them in the best style. The settler recovered them after some days, and restored them to their mourning relative. Even by this time the Paradise duck had not been cured of her infatuation for the other's babies, as she made several other unsuccessful attempts at abduction,
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New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13673, 14 February 1908, Page 8
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136Untitled New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13673, 14 February 1908, Page 8
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