28 SAFE AND ATTRACTIVE PRESERVES 



do. Sportsmen who have considered this matter are 

 aware that wild ducks are not so often seen on open 

 ponds and waters, where there are no reeds, rushes or 

 bushes about the banks, as they are about waters where 

 suitable cover, in which they can hide, abounds. It is 

 true that there is 'more food, including insect food, to 

 be found about ponds and streams fringed with wild 

 rice and other grasses and bushes and trees which fur- 

 nish acorns and other foods and that food is the most 

 important matter which causes the wild fowl to visit 

 and remain in any given place, but it also is true that 

 the ducks are not well satisfied with a place which has 

 no covers in which they can hide, even if the food be 

 abundant. The wild duck when pursued by a winged 

 enemy will fly into the protecting reeds and rice just as 

 quail seek the briars when they are pursued by their 

 enemies. 



Since there is abundant cover and much natural food 

 about hundreds of thousands of ponds and streams in 

 America, where ducks can be restored and made abun- 

 dant, the matter does not seem to be of great impor- 

 tance. But there are many ponds (in convenient loca- 

 tions where good duck shooting should be had) which 

 have neither cover nor food, and some artificial ponds 

 can be made on the upland preserves in order to have 

 the additional diversion of duck shooting. It is well, 

 therefore, to know how unattractive waters can be made 

 attractive. 



Wild rice furnishes both food and cover, and this 

 plant easily can be introduced in many places where it 

 does not now occur. The methods of planting it will 

 be described in the chapter on the natural foods of wild 



