THE WATERFOWL 



(Family Anatidae) 



BY A. A. ALLEN, PH.D. 



ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ORNITHOLOGY, CORNELL UNIVERSITY 



TO ONE who is fond of nature in her wilder moods, 

 there is nothing more fascinating than the flight of 

 the waterfowl. Seen against a leaden sky or against 

 the first flush of dawn, the sweep of their rapidly moving 

 forms holds a charm that can be replaced by nothing 

 else. The eye follows until as merest specks, they dis- 

 appear into the haze, leaving one with a feeling that na- 

 ture is not yet vanquished, that there are still great spaces 



A MALLARD DUCK IN ITS iNKST 1 .\ CAPTIVITY 



Compare this bird with the drake mallard in breeding plumage and in 



"eclipse." 



unexplored, that man, after all, is but one small part of 

 the great creation. 



Vast stretches of brown marsh, or waves lapping on 

 the lake shore, or surf pounding on the headlands are the 

 setting for a picture that clings to one's memory : there 

 are decoys tossing on the waves, mere blocks of wood 

 carved and painted to resemble ducks; crystals of snow 

 driven before the blast cut and sting the face ; frozen 

 spray covers the blind and the hunters that lie in wait; 

 Aeolus plays a tune in the gun barrels. The uninitiated 

 wonder how men can endure such privations in the 

 name of sport but they have not seen the picture, nor 

 heard the music of the wind, and the waves, and the 

 whistling wings. For nature has ordained that man 

 shall not lose his primitive hunting instinct nor his 

 love of primeval conditions that bring him close to her 

 bosom. No matter how civilized the world may become 

 nor how crowded her thoroughfares, the freezing winds, 

 and the waves, and the ice and the snow that bring an 



imprecation from many, will still find a joyful response 

 in the men who go down after ducks. 



Let us, therefore, wisely conserve what we have, and 

 as the number of hunters increases, let the open season 

 be shortened and the bag limit lowered. Let us propa- 

 gate waterfowl in captivity with which to restock the 

 marshes so that our children's children may still view the 

 picture that made its appeal to our forefathers and to us. 



There are over 200 species of waterfowl of which 

 about fifty are found in North America. They are 

 grouped into five sub-families or groups that are rather 

 easily distinguished : the swans, the geese, the mergansers, 

 the dabbling ducks, and the diving ducks. The swans 

 have much longer necks than the other waterfowl, even 

 longer than their bodies. The geese have shorter necks 

 than the swans but longer than the ducks. The mer- 



A CANADA GOOSE 



Geese have longer necks than the ducks but shorter necks than the swans. 

 This is the commonest species. 



gansers differ from all the others in having narrow, 

 serrate bills. The dabbling and diving ducks are readily 

 distinguished from the swans, geese and mergansers but 

 are not so easily separated from one another, unless one 

 can observe their method of feeding or distinguish the 

 lobe on the hind toe which characterizes the diving 

 ducks. The dabbling ducks frequent the marshes and 

 lake shores where they can feed in shallow water by 

 tipping. They feed mostly at night or on dark days and 

 spend the bright days at a safe distance from land. They 

 usually occur in small flocks, those of over a hundred 



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