Canadian Forestry Journal, March, 1919 



103 



arrived on March 1 3, and Polly came home on 

 March 16. Polly had got her beak a little too 

 far ahead and a shot had grazed right across 

 it and cut the side off, leaving it hanging. She 

 would just stand around with her mouth open. 

 I got some porridge and mixed custard with it 

 and the second day I had Polly in my right hand. 

 In a week or so I took these ducks to a photo- 

 grapher, stood them on the table, brushed them 

 down and talked to them quietly and got a 

 photo of them. 



Back the Fifth Time. 



We often make remarks about silly old geese 

 and silly old ducks; sometimes I wonder what 

 the ducks and geese are saying about us. These 

 ducks have shied around to keep clear of people 

 hiding in ambush for them; then they come 

 home and in a few days are eating out of our 

 hands. Isnt it worth thinking about? Talk 

 about loving these birds; you simply can't help 

 it, if you are human. Polly said: "I am going 

 to stay with you. Jack, from now on", and she 

 stayed in the hen house with my birds in the 

 winters of 1915 and 1916. However, in the 

 spring of 1916 she got shot, but Delilah migrated 

 and got back March 5, for the fifth time; 

 migrated again, and got back in 1917 on March 

 25, and last spring she came back Tor the sixth 

 time on March 19. Do birds return to their 

 homes? I know that it was the same tag she 

 had on, because my wife and I took it off her leg 

 after it had been on five years, and we presented 

 her with a new tag. I am now making my 

 tag system a little more interesting, by putting 

 on the blank side a verse of Scripture. Every- 

 body who brings down a goose with my tag on 

 it gets a verse of Scripture, whether he needs it 

 or not. Mack Stewart, of Tennessee, writes: 

 "Send me the history of this bird or any other 

 Canadian bird". Corporal John R. Smith 

 writes: "White, age 23, still unclaimed, can 

 you help me out"? So I took the two letters and 

 handed them over to the ladies in our Sunday 

 school, and the same day one of them came 

 back. There are ten of us in one class, and 

 we went and stamped this on our tag: "Let us 

 consider one another" Hebrews 10: 24. 



Now, where do these ducks go? 



"Ask now the beasts, and they shall teach 



thee; and the fowls of the air and they shall 



tell thee". 



Tagging the Ducks. 



I have caught and tagged 287 wild ducks. 

 My home is on the north shore of Lake Erie, 

 due north of Pelee Island, twenty-six miles 

 south-east of Detroit, at Kingsville, Ontario — 



well, I am a little way out of the town. Kings- 

 ville is the place where more fowls go than any- 

 where else in North America, I believe: the 

 fowls of the air, it is their choice. I have twelve 

 tags from Ohio, due south of me ; nine from 

 Kentucky, nine from Tennessee, leading right 

 on to the Gulf of Mexico, and seven from 

 Alabama. I have one from Saskatchewan, one 

 from Alberta and several from Manitoba. I 

 have only four or five tags from west of the 

 Mississippi. I have them as far east as Long 

 Island, New York, as far west as Alberta, as 

 far south as Lousiana, and as far north as 

 Sault Ste. Marie. I haven't a tag for a wild 

 duck north of Sault Ste. Marie, although I 

 know that they go further up there. 



I have nine tags off the wild geese from 

 Chesapeake Bay, seven from North Carolina, one 

 from Maryland and one from New Jersey, but 

 none between my home and that southeast coast 

 of Chesapeake Bay. Do these wild geese come 

 clear over to that Kingsville pond without a 

 stop? 



Returns From Hudson's Bay. 



Now, they stay with me about two months. 

 They come about the first of March — in fact, 

 the earliest we have had them is Feb. 20, and 

 the latest, March 16 and stay until the last 

 week in April or the first of May. We have 25 

 tags returned from James Bay and Hudson Bay, 

 and only one from the west side of James Bay, 

 which is Albany, and 24 have com? right along 

 the east coast. Those 25 tags, ladies and gen- 

 tlemen, are in my possession and I am sorry 

 that I didn't bring them along. The Indians 

 ?hoot them and take the tags to the Hudson's 

 Bay Company agent, I suppose through curios- 

 ity, mostly, and the agents eventually return the 

 tags. I have 25 out of the 102 that I put on; 

 25 have been returned from there and only nine 

 from the south. 



How did we find out about these wild geese? 

 I have gone five miles from home before th? 

 stars closed their eyes in the morning. Wild 

 geese are quite scarce; I went four mornings in 

 succession and never saw one. There I lay 

 under a blanket, just as the stars were closing 

 their eyes, with three or four wild goose decoys 

 out. Suddenly, at daylight, I see friend wild 

 goose coming, bringing his family with him. I 

 can just see the tip of the wings begin to move — 

 a faint hum. coming closer. Everything is pretty 

 quiet but my heart sinks; her? are two men 

 coming out there in the next field. It's all off; 

 those fellows will secure the geese. But, no; 

 (Conhnucil on paQc 1 3S) 



