120 /// .1/\' Hird Sanctuary. 



can tell how lonj^" it lives. The longest-lived bird 1 had was a 

 Chiloe widgeon drake. 1 bought him as a full-grown bird in 

 October i(S8(S, and he died peacefully and obviously of old age in 

 (Jctober iQOcS. I do not know how old he w'as when I bought 

 him, and this is the longest life 1 have known of any of my 

 waterfowl. (leese. no doubt, live much longer. 



.A.'n'R.\CTKD Wild X'isitors: Since 1 have had these 

 waterfowl of different kinds at Fallodon, it has been very inter- 

 esting" to see the varieties of wild ones which have come to my 

 ponds. 1 remember when I was a boy my father showing" me a 

 place on one of the burns at home and saying: ' ^ iiat is the 

 place where I once shot a teal." And that, with one other 

 .exception, nothing but mallard has ever been shot or seen on the 

 actual property at home. It does not extend to the sea, and the 

 sea ducks do not come to it ; but I myself once, after a great gale 

 in the winter, shot an immature widgeon on a little pool. With 

 these exceptions nothing but mallard used to be seen on the 

 property at all. 



Now every year my ponds are visited frequently by the 

 Mallard. Teal, Widgeon, Pintail, Shoveller, Pochard, and 

 Tufted Ducks. I treat the enclosure as a sanctuary. That shows 

 how so many birds, considered rare by those who shoot, are 

 often passing over, especially in the season of migration, and, 

 if they hear birds of their own kind calling below, will come 

 down and settle. 



One very interesting" point about wild things is how 

 quickly you can get a perfectly wild bird tame. I remember 

 one December afternoon finding a wild pintail drake on the pond. 

 He rose, fiew high into the air and circled round; but when he 

 saw that the pinioned and tame birds did not follow him, after 

 -much fiying at a great height he lit again on the pond. That 

 evening" when I was feeding the birds he came and looked on. 

 and within a week he would come out with the others to feed 

 and Y)\ck up the grain I threw to hini, and even when sonie of the 

 grain fell on his ])ack he was not alarmed. 



.So you see how tameness in their own kind gives confi- 

 fVnce to the wildest birds, but that tameness, that confidence, 

 is associated with the place, which does not cause them to be 

 les«; wi'd elsewhere than they were. 



1 had one good instance of that in the case of a drak'^ 



