NATURAL FOODS OF WILD DUCKS 47 



tenant with a small cost. First, he says, it should be 

 fenced with large mesh netting to keep out hunting 

 dogs. Second, open some pools in the most convenient 

 and quietest parts. In these place some boxes contain- 

 ing soil and plant watercress in the boxes. Nail some 

 netting over the tops. This will prevent the cress from 

 washing out. Place the boxes in the pools; there the 

 cress will grow and seed and soon establish good beds 

 of cress. Third (and most important), get some wil- 

 lows in variety, and plant these at a distance of three 

 or four feet apart. Insert pieces about three and a half 

 feet long in the ground; tTiese in a few years will treble 

 the cost of planting and the wild fowl will have places 

 in which to feed and to breed. The shooting will be 

 greatly improved, for if a few duck were pinioned on 

 these places the wild birds will breed and rear their 

 broods in safety. The willows can be cut every year or 

 two. Firms who make baskets will buy them. 



Wild ducks require very little water, and they will 

 frequent and breed beside very small ponds, provided 

 they find an abundance of food and safe quarters. If 

 the ducks are abundant they should, of course, be fed 

 at least one meal of grain daily, and the best time to 

 feed this is late in the day, since feeding at this time 

 tends to prevent their straying. Some interesting ex- 

 periments with wild ducks can be made, inexpensively, 

 on thousands of farms in America which now contain 

 worthless swamps and boggy places. 



In addition to the plant foods, the ducks devour many 

 insects during the Summer, and they procure about the 

 ponds and streams much animal food, such as snails, 

 worms, and small organisms found in mud. Many of 



