538 DUCK SHOOTING. 



This plan is best for geese, pelicans, sandhill cranes, 

 swans and other large birds. The tools are fine soft 

 copper wire and an awl of proper size. 



Have an attendant or two to hold the bird, which 

 must be blindfolded. Draw the wing back at the joint 

 marked A in the cut ; drill holes in several of the pri- 

 maries and secondaries, marked i and 2 ; put the wires 

 through in several places, binding the feathers together 

 so as to keep the joint from moving; fasten the wires 

 and the job is done. 



The joint will become ankylosed before the next 

 month, the feathers will be shed, but that wing can 

 never be extended for flight, yet the bird is perfect. 

 We occasionally meet men with stiffened joints, caused 

 by improper treatment, but there is no suffering after 

 the first few days of so confining a joint, Nature cares 

 for that, and while this treatment is best for large 

 birds, I am not sure but it would be best for smaller 

 ones. 



Of the cinnamon teal I know nothing, but have 

 owned and bred both the blue-wing and the green- 

 wing. If there is a wild duck that inherits less fear 

 of man than these two teal I don't know it. Of the 

 two, perhaps the slightly larger blue-wing is quicker 

 to make friends with man, but here is a story of the 

 green-wing. 



At the New York fish-hatching station at Cold 

 Spring Harbor, Long Island, I had a fair collection of 

 my pets. There was a long, no-account pond made by 

 throwing up a highway, and in this the tide rose and 



