Mother Duck

The Mother Duck is a supporting character from Disney's 75th and final Silly Symphonies short film, The Ugly Duckling. At the film's beginning, she and her mate are anxiously awaiting the hatching of their eggs from which four beautiful baby ducks are born. Although initially overjoyed, their mood changes to shock when the final (and noticeably larger) egg hatches to reveal a loud and rather unusual looking duckling. The birth of the Ugly Duckling provokes a fight between the two of them regarding why he was so different from the others with both parents blaming the other for his appearance. As they go their seperate ways, the Mother Duck takes the four normal ducklings with her down to the pond but leaves the ugly one behind; deciding that no duckling as ugly and graceless as him could possibly be one of hers. To her chagrin, she soon realizes that he followed after them and even had the gall to ride on her back as if he was one of her own. Even after throwing him overboard, the Ugly Duckling continues to chase after her until the Mother Duck's patience finally reaches its limit and she furiously snaps at him to go away and to never show his face to her again. She then takes her four beautiful ducklings and abandons him to his fate without a second thought.

Yet despite her cruelty toward him, the Mother Duck is not without heart and at the end of the film, is genuinely happy that the Ugly Duckling (who was actually a baby swan the whole time) was able to find his true family and bids him farewell as he departs with the swans.