Self-study
Besides laying eggs in her own nest, any female wood duck will lay an egg in the nest of another female wood duck if she sees the other duck leaving her nest. █████ ███████ ███████ ███████████ ████ █████████ ████████ ██ ██████████ ████ ███████ ███ ██████ █████ ███ ████ ███████ ████████ ████ ██████ ███ ██ ███████ █████ ██ ████ ███ █████ ██████ ████ ████████ ████████ ███ ██████ ████████████ ████████ █████ ███████ █████ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ █████ ████ ████ ████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ████ ██ █████ █████ ██████
Summary
Any female wood duck will lay an egg in the nest of another female wood duck if she sees the other duck leave her nest. Under natural nesting conditions, this behavior is rare because wood duck nests are usually well hidden. However, nesting boxes put up by people undercut the wood duck’s reproductive efforts. Why? Because the nesting boxes become so crowded with eggs that few of them will ever hatch.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
If the nesting boxes put up by people were better hidden, then the boxes would be more successful in aiding the wood duck’s reproductive efforts.
6.
The statements above, if true, ████ ████████ ███████ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████
a
Female wood ducks ████ █████████ █████ ██ ████ █████ ████ ████ ███████ ███████ █████ ███ ███ ██████████
We don’t know what causes a female wood duck to establish a nest in a nesting box. We only know that female wood ducks will lay eggs in another duck’s nest if she sees that duck leave the nest.
b
Nesting female wood █████ ███ █████ ███ █████ ██████ ████ █████ ███ ███ ████ ██████████ ██ █████ ████████ ████████
We don’t know which female wood ducks reproduce most successfully.
c
The nesting boxes ███ ████ █████ ████ ████ █████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ███████ ███████ ██████
We don’t know whether the nesting boxes have less space. We only know that the nesting boxes tend to be overcrowded, but that does not imply that these nesting sights are smaller than natural nesting sites.
d
The nesting boxes █████ ██ ████ █████████ ██ ███████ ████ █████ █████ ██ ████ ████ ████ ███████ ██ █████ ████ █████ ████ ████ █████████ ████
The argument concludes that the nesting boxes undercut the duck’s reproductive efforts because the boxes become overcrowded. If the cause for overcrowding the nests were reduced, then the effect of undermining reproductive efforts would also be reduced.
e
Nesting boxes are ██████ ██ ██████████ ███ ███████ ███████ █████ ██ ████ █████ ███████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ████████
We don’t know whether the nesting boxes are needed, and we don’t know whether the wood ducks’ habitat is being destroyed.