SAFE AND ATTRACTIVE PRESERVES 25 



where a small pond was made for them by building a 

 very inexpensive dam across a little stream. The big 

 quail preserves in North Carolina easily could produce 

 a large number of fowl about ponds made by damming 

 the small streams. 



There are hundreds of thousands of likely ponds, 

 sloughs and marshy streams in America where wild 

 ducks formerly nested, but which have been shot out. 

 The swamps, ponds and sloughs are absolutely worth- 

 less for agricultural purposes until they are drained, 

 with the exception of those where cranberries are 

 grown, and there is room enough in America for every 

 gun to have desirable duck shooting during a long open 

 season at a very small expense, provided the ducks be 

 properly looked after and not driven away as they are 

 now whenever they attempt to nest. 



Although the ducks can be introduced easily and 

 made abundant in many localities where they never were 

 known to occur, it is evident that the best place to 

 start a duck ranch or preserve is on or in the vicinity 

 of the ground over which the wild fowl travel during 

 their migrations, since many birds will be attracted by 

 those on the ground and will remain to interbreed with 

 them, provided the place be made safe and attractive. 

 The best place of all is, of course, a place where wild 

 fowl are now nesting in good numbers, and there are 

 hundreds of square miles in the region known as the 

 "ducks' paradise," in Canada, where ducks breed every 

 season. One-tenth of this area, if properly preserved, 

 would feed the people of the North American continent 

 with all the ducks they could possibly eat, and, at the 

 same time, the duck shooting throughout the country 



