Project Gutenberg 2007-01-25 Public domain in the USA. 337 Burroughs, John 1837 1921 The Wit of a Duck and Other Papers The wit of a duck -- An astonished porcupine -- Human traits in the animals -- The downy woodpecker -- A barn-door outlook -- Wild life in winter -- Bird life in winter -- A birds' free lunch -- Bird-nesting time -- A breath of April -- The woodcock's evening hymn -- The coming of summer. Produced by Joseph R. Hauser, Suzan Flanagan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net "The Wit of a Duck and Other Papers" by John Burroughs is a collection of essays written in the early 20th century. The work explores themes of nature and animal behavior, showcasing Burroughs' observations of wildlife and their interactions with human experiences. Each essay unfolds a deeper understanding of the natural world through careful and poetic reflection, inviting readers into his intimate encounters with nature. The opening of this collection begins with "The Wit of a Duck," where Burroughs recounts a charming tale of a homesick mallard drake that tries to find its way back to its companions after being transported to a new location. Despite the challenges and obstacles the drake faces, he demonstrates a remarkable homing instinct, showcasing an innate ability to navigate his surroundings. Burroughs introduces the novel idea that animals possess a "home sense" akin to an extraordinary sixth sense, capturing the reader's attention with engaging storytelling that melds human emotion with animal behavior. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Reading ease score: 73.4 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read. en Natural history -- Outdoor books QH Text Browsing: Nature/Gardening/Animals Browsing: Science - General Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches Category: Nature/Gardening/Animals 168364 2025-06-08T14:45:25.699969 text/html 164312 2007-01-25T14:59:50 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 236032 2007-01-25T14:59:52 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 application/zip 301078 2025-06-08T14:45:32.353921 application/epub+zip 300086 2025-06-08T14:45:28.865911 application/epub+zip 136100 2025-06-08T14:45:27.591954 application/epub+zip 423232 2025-06-08T14:45:35.055923 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 396774 2025-06-08T14:45:31.493921 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 215309 2022-09-09T14:39:45.080792 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 147832 2025-06-08T14:45:25.314002 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 147757 2007-01-25T14:59:50 text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 57907 2007-01-25T14:59:52 text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 application/zip 147751 2007-01-25T14:59:50 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 57890 2007-01-25T14:59:52 text/plain; charset=us-ascii application/zip 20337 2025-06-08T14:45:35.193887 application/rdf+xml 13483 2025-06-08T14:45:28.140970 image/jpeg 3243 2025-06-08T14:45:27.864921 image/jpeg 375333 2025-06-08T14:45:25.727960 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia