When 13-year-old Bernard McCoy, of Garran, found an egg on O'Malley Hill he was not confident that it would hatch.

You see, Bernard had found an egg once before on one of his walks which evidently turned out to be a hard-boiled one.

However, with this newfound egg, he kept it on a shelf in his bedroom for a week.

Then one of his family's Chinese Silkie hens became broody and so, Bernard put the egg beneath her.

The egg hatched, producing one healthy, lively duckling, the family called Mai, for O'Malley's Hill.

The hen, earlier dubbed Miss Brown Junior, appeared delighted even though her duckling initially did not understand her.

A Canberra veterinary surgeon said that ducks adopted the first thing they saw at birth as their mother.

With a swimming pool in the backyard and the family cat safely tucked away, the duckling was guaranteed a good life.

See: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/110909045