Ii8 /;/ .1/v Hird Sdiiciuary. 



duck would do so, as its natural nestiny-})laces are in hok-s in 

 trees and not on the ground like our common wild duck. Since 

 this North American Wood-duck made no attempt to carry its 

 young down to the ground, I am doubtful if any waterfowl 

 v\ould make the attempt at all. 1 will not say it is 

 impossible 



Vkrsicolour Teal : The versicolour teal which bred ac 

 Fallodon were, as far as 1 know, the only birds of this species 

 to breed in this country. Of course, I cannot be sure. There 

 may be some instances I have not heard of. These bred once 

 with me and the sequel is curious. Eight were reared, so i 

 had a little flock of ten beautiful versicoloured teal. The sexes 

 are so alike, as is the case with several other S. American 

 v/aterfowl, that young males and females are difficult to 

 distinguish. 



Unfortunately, out of the eight reared, six turned out to 

 DC drakes and only two were ducks. However, that made three 

 pairs of versicolour teal. One pair I exchanged with dealers for 

 something else which was rare and which I wanted, then the old 

 duck which had bred died, and the young pair left were in the 

 following year killed by a fox, which somehow got into the 

 enclosure. 



I found myself left with five drakes. Then came tiie War. 

 Of course, during the War I made no attempt to buy any birds 

 o»' replace any losses by purchase. Two drakes I sent to the 



Zoological Gardens I heard of one female of the 



species being in the collection at Kew. I thought it w^ortli 

 while sending one of my drakes to Kew to mate with the female 

 which had no mate, so I did that. In the next air-raid a piece 

 o*^ our own shrapnel fell and killed the female at Kew. Soon 

 after that food became impossible to get, and what remained of 

 my versicolour drakes, in conmion with several other rare things, 

 l^erished. That completed the episode. 



DoMKS'i'ic I.iFK : Of course, as you all know, w^ild ducks 

 are monogamous and not polygamous like pheasants. They 

 have one wife, and theirs is a highly developed domestic life with 

 great evidence of affection. When the drake has no eclipse the 

 pt'ir never separate during the year. Where the drake has an 

 eclipse he separates when in eclipse, and when he conies into 

 plumage again, early in autumn, which most of the waterfowl 



