66 YOUNG DUCKS ON THE POND 



take a flight to some water at a distance from home, but 

 they will be sure to return at the feeding time, or if 

 alarmed, and if a horn or dog whistle be used and sound- 

 ed before they are fed they will learn to come to the 

 sound. 



I discovered this fact by accident and have since seen 

 it mentioned in the English magazines. Some dusky 

 ducks which I reared in my yard were always on the 

 lookout at feeding time and often came to the kitchen 

 door and made loud demands for my appearance. I 

 used to feed some setters there and in order to teach 

 them to come at the sound of the whistle I often blew it 

 just before feeding them. The ducks quickly associated 

 the sound of the whistle with my appearance with the 

 food, and often flew swiftly to the doorway and took 

 the food I threw down for the dogs before the last 

 named arrived. These birds were quite tame, of course, 

 and were not afraid of me or of the dogs, but they could 

 fly well and often explored the country round about and 

 went out to a bay a mile distant, as I have said, where 

 they remained for hours and took their chances of being 

 shot in the open season. I feared they had gone for good 

 the first time they went away. They were much tamer 

 than ducks should be kept on a game preserve. 



It is a singular fact, which seems almost incredible, 

 that ducks which are tame in the presence of their owner 

 or in a locality where they know they are safe, often will 

 be as wild as any wild ducks when a stranger appears or 

 when they are on dangerous waters. 



Mr. Charles C. Townsend, of Colorado, wrote the fol- 

 lowing story about some wild ducks for Mr. Shields, the 

 editor of Shields' Magazine, which well illustrates this 



