238 WILD DUCK 



fostered in places over which cultivators have no right of entry, 

 and even on their land no practical control during the breeding 

 season and the growth of crops through legislative restrictions. 

 It is the same all through the chapter, even wild ducks that breed 

 away from the " brood " or duck-pond return to their quarters 

 augmented by August i and there may remain until the following 

 March I, when again the ducks, not having been bagged, make for 

 places where they may breed in safety. 



Wild duck is not game, but a gun licence is needed by a person 

 shooting it. This applies to all persons carrying a gun or .other 

 firearm ; and a game-licence is required by every person who hunts / 

 shoots, or takes game, except persons (in Great Britain) taking wood- 

 cock or snipe with nets or springs, rabbit-warren proprietors, or 

 others, on enclosed land, killing rabbits, persons hunting deer, 

 or hares, with hounds, owners or occupiers, or their servants, 

 killing deer on their own land, beaters and others not holding guns, 

 attending holders of game-licences. Occupiers of enclosed land, 

 or owners, having the right to kill game, may themselves kill hares, 

 or authorize others to do so, without a licence ; but such authority 

 must be limited to one person at a time in any one parish, and must 

 be registered with the Clerk of the Justices of the Petty Sessional 

 Division in which the land is situate. Even when the quarry is not 

 what is legally known as " game," a gun-licence is necessary. A game 

 licence, however, covers a gun-licence, and soldiers, sailors, volunteers, 

 or constables on duty, or at practice, or occupiers of land scaring 

 birds or killing vermin on such land, or persons so acting under 

 the orders of occupiers holding a licence, need not take out a 

 gun-licence. Urjless, however, the occupier is himself licensed he 

 cannot authorize any unlicensed person to carry a gun. " Scaring " 

 birds is not to be regarded as including killing of any birds, and 

 vermin does not include rabbits. 



Wild ducks are sometimes reared for stocking lakes and ponds, 

 and being comparatively easy birds to rear, the stock occasionally 

 becomes so great as to prove injurious to crops. The eggs are 

 placed under a hen in the ordinary way, and they hatch in twenty- 

 eight days, the nest, not eggs, being frequently moistened. When 

 hatched, the youn^ birds and hens are placed in a coop on a grass 

 run, and fed regularly, with duck-meal scalded and given in a sloppy 

 state. They are supplied with water in a small vessel, but in the 

 spring and cold weather, not allowed on the pond or lake, as many 

 would get cramp. In due course the weather and water gets 

 warmer, and the ducks, grown and eager for a swim, are placed 

 on the water. Of course they are led from soft to hard food, maize 

 being usually strewn in the water for safety against grain-feeding 

 birds, but within easy reach of the long-necked ducks. Unfor- 

 tunately, feeding does not keep the ducks to the lake any more than 

 " feeds " keep pheasants to coverts ; but they roam over the fields 



