General Notes 61 



coys. Ducks hatched from eggs taken from the wild mallard's 

 nest and raised among the domestic ducks and chickens show 

 few or no Indications of wildness in their behavior. The second 

 and succeeding generations are even less wild. As a precaution 

 against flight, clipping of the wings frequently is resorted to, but 

 instances are common of the birds making no attempt at flight 

 even though the wings remain undipped. At McCook lake, S. D., 

 in the spring of 1919, wild ducks were decoyed into a farmer's 

 dooryard by a flock of domesticated mallards and took their de- 

 parture without any of the home grown birds accompanying them. 



The incident of the Massachusetts mallard shows that under 

 the proper conditions of temptation and environment the species 

 hatched and reared in captivity will heed the call of the wild and 

 return to the ways of its kind. 



A. F. ALLEN. 



Sioux City, la., Nov. 14, 1919. 



ORDER PERMITTING THE KILLING OR TRAPPING OF CER- 

 TAIN BIRDS, AT FISH HATCHERIES, FOUND TO BE 

 INJURIOUS TO VALUABLE FISH LIFE. 



Information having been furnished the Secretary of Agricul- 

 ture that grebes, loons, gulls and terns, mergansers and certain 

 species of the hei'ou have become, under extraordinary conditions, 

 seriously injurious to and destructive of fishes at fish hatcheries 

 in the United States and Alaska, and an investigation having been 

 made to determine the nature and the extent of the injury com- 

 plained of, and whether the birds alleged to be doing the damage 

 should be killed, and, if so, during what times and by what means, 

 and it having been determined by the Secretary of Agriculture that 

 the birds above mentioned have become, under extraordinary con- 

 ditions, seriously injurious to and destructive of fishes at fish 

 hatcheries in the United States and Alaska, and that such birds 

 found committing the damage should be destroyed: 



Now, therefore, I, D. F. Houston, Secretary of Agriculture, pur- 

 suant to authority in me vested by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 

 July 3, 1918, and agreeably to Regulation 10 of the Migratory Bird 

 Treaty Act Regulations approved and proclaimed July 31, 1918, do 

 hereby order that the owner or superintendent, or a bona fide em- 

 ployee of a public or private fish hatchery in the United States or 

 in Alaska, for the purpose of protecting the fishes at such hatchery, 

 may shoot or trap the following birds at any time on the grounds 

 and waters of such hatchery: 



Grebes (Colymbidce), locally also called water-witches or hell- 

 divers. 



