BREEDING WILDFOWL. 537 



they had been handed me without delay, I could have 

 easily made the number fifteen. Care must be taken 

 that no bone protrudes or, the wound will never heal. 

 I have brought pinioned birds with protruding bones, 

 where some thoughtless fellow had merely chopped the 

 wing off with a hatchet. Such birds are always poor, 

 and will never breed. Of course, I amputated the 

 wing above the joint A, and made a clean job and a 

 healthy bird. 



With young birds, at six or eight weeks old, or as 

 soon as the pinfeathers start, all that is necessary is 

 a pair of sharp scissors to clip the line B, leaving the 

 thumb. 



Ankylosis is a Greek term often used in pathology 

 for a stiff joint. Our joints must be used or they pro- 

 test, as we see when we have been "cramped up" in a 

 car or coach all day. Keep an elbow or knee in a fixed 

 position for three months, more or less, and it is no 

 longer a joint, the disease known as ankylosis has set 

 in, and there you are. 



When a bird is pinioned, the mutilation is plainly 

 shown when it stretches its wings for exercise of its 

 joints, but when the wings are closed, only a careful 

 observer would note that the primaries of only one 

 wing reached above the back. I would not now pinion 

 a bird larger than a mallard; because the bones are 

 large, the birds are heavy, and there is a better way to 

 do it, so that when at rest the birds are perfect, and 

 only when they stretch their wings is there any evi- 

 dence that they are not symmetrical. 



