ROAD CLEARED FOR DUCKS

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 17, 15 August 1928, Page 7

ROAD CLEARED FOR DUCKS

COMEDY AT THE PALACE.

LONDON. While a huge crowd were awaiting the arrivals yesterday for Hie investiture at Buckingham. Palace a policesergeant from, the Privy Pur.se end of the Palace unexpectedly walked into the roadway and held up the traffic. Thinking that someone of unusual celebrity was about to appear, tiie crown ran to the scene —when round the corner, sedate and unhurrying, appeared a duck with eight tiny ducklings fluttering around her.

Under the escort of the policesergeant the party crossed first to the Victoria Memorial, where there wag a. slight pause for rest, and then to the flower-beds outside St. James's .Bark.

The ducklings went through the gates, and the duck over to them, afterwards leading them to the lake. The crowd, which had followed the progress with great delight, broke into loud cheers.

The brood, like many others, had been hatched in the gardens of the j Palace, where there is a pond. The ducks,'however, fear the rooks which (abound in the trees and attack the j,young ones, and prefer to lead the.r "familip* to the safety of St. James's J Park. Usually the journey is accomplished in the early morning. J If the gate is closed the mother will even fly over the wall, about 30 feet high taking one of the dueklillfiS with her each time. Yesterday the mother duck led her family =oI »gh the garden entrance, across the forecourt, and through the gate opposite the Privy Purse door, when I the police-sergeant took charge. ■