TRAVELS OF WATERFOWL 



environment and in its society is learned. "A very large part of learning in 

 birds is to be considered as the process of adjusting fixed automatisms or 

 patterns of behavior to the changes and chances of the world" (Thorpe, 

 1951b:8). 



The duck does not learn what it wants to learn ; there is no evidence of 

 any conscious direction of experiences and activities toward learning. It 

 learns those companions and parts of its environment toward which it is 

 directed by its instincts. Since the pattern of inborn behavior shows no 

 measurable variation from one generation to the next, the species behavior 

 shows little change. The wild Canvasback of today learns the same things its 

 ancestors learned: the foods that are edible, the feeding places, the routes 

 to and from food, the mate, the nest site, the nest and the young. When 

 confronted with new situations related to basic rules of life, however, the 

 Canvasback and other ducks are remarkably plastic in their ability to learn 

 their relation to new (for the species) objects and places. I have already 

 noted the young Canvasback's ability to learn foods not naturally available. 

 Captive ducks at Delta learn to recognize the human "companions" who 

 supply their needs, and they recognize objects related to food, such as the 

 grain pail. They learn the functional parts of their highly artificial environ- 

 ment: metal swimming tank, food trays, brooders. In the wild, too, ducks 

 have learned to adjust themselves to changes. None of the cultivated cereal 

 grains are natural foods, for example, but Mallard and Pintail now seek 

 these for food. 



Some species accommodate themselves to changes more readily than 

 others. In our banding traps we find all kinds, young and old alike, feeding 

 readily on wheat or barley. Indeed, these grains soon become preferred 

 foods, young ducks returning again and again to the traps for meals. But 

 only two species, Mallard and Pintail, regularly forage in the stubble fields 

 for these exotics. In some regions, these two species now feed almost ex- 

 clusively on cultivated grains in late summer and autumn, despite an abun- 

 dance of natural food. Arthur S. Hawkins tells me that in Illinois there is 

 evidence that the Wood Duck is learning to feed on upland corn fields. 

 Often we see individual variations in the pattern of learning — that is to say, 

 in a large flock of captives, certain birds learn places and objects not learned 

 by others. A captive female European Widgeon, for example, has learned 

 to jump to the top of a wire frame in the winter pen at Delta, and for three 

 years she has spent much of her time perched there, although no other 

 ducks have followed her action. 



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