H5 



feared they might do when I put them into the aviary. The 

 duck is one of five sent to me last August from Renfrewshire, 

 •when about three weeks old : of these five I only managed to 

 rear two, the others dying the day after their arrival. The drake 

 I bought adult about the same time. They do very well in 

 captivity, but it is extremely difficult to get pinioned birds to 

 breed and, where space permits, I believe the best plan is to take 

 off the first joint only : this allows the birds to fly well enough to 

 escape foxes, etc., but not to go away, but of course it only 

 answers where the surroundings are suitable to the birds' liking. 

 Early this spring mine showed distinct signs of wishing to breed, 

 but unfortunately the late snow we had here at the end of April, 

 smashed in the roof of my aviary, which necessitated my catch- 

 ing up all the birds and penning them in a small enclosure for a 

 couple of days while their aviary was being re-roofed. This of 

 course upset all their ideas of breeding this season, but I hope for 

 better luck next year. To successfully breed any of the " fancy " 

 ducks absolute quiet is essential, also too many ducks should not 

 be kept together, as they upset and disturb each other. A single 

 pair of Shell ducks will disturb all the other ducks on the same 

 piece of water. 



The drake commences to go into eclipse plumage early in 

 June and assumes his full winter plumage again in October or 

 November. I have never seen any variety of colouring in the 

 common Teal, though I have seen a pure white Garganey 

 Teal. Teal constantly when flushed from some pool or sluggish 

 stream, even when fired at, return to the same spot very shortly 

 afterwards. I have never seen them, even when half-grown, dive 

 for their food, as half-grown and even adult wild duck will do ; 

 but anyone who has winged a Teal which has fallen into water, 

 knows that they can dive with remarkable agility. They are very 

 good walkers and run among the steins of reeds and sedge very 

 rapidly. My friend, who sent me the above mentioned five last 

 August, wrote to me at the time saying that the other three of 

 the brood which escaped, " ran like rats" to the water, where they 

 instantly dived and were not seen again. 



Some of our members who read my last article on Waders 

 in Captivity may recollect that I mentioned my intention of 



