GAME BIRDS AS PETS 



477 



THESE BABY RUFFED GROUSE ARE PARTICULAR PETS OF 

 THE FAMILY, AND THEY CRAVE HUMAN COMPANIONSHIP. 



pond is music to his ears and he never tires of watching 

 their courting performances as they float about on its 

 surface. Even if his grounds are limited to a city yard, 

 he may yet enjoy the presence of a pair of dainty teal 

 or of the elegant wood ducks. 

 During the past few years it 

 has been the writer's good for- 

 tune to be able to surround him- 

 self with a variety of game birds 

 and though his grounds are limit- 

 ed to about four acres of rough 

 land, a large part of which is 

 occupied by the house and gar- 

 den, he is able to enjoy the wild 

 life' of the woods and the 

 marshes from his windows. On 

 a little pond made by damming 

 a small stream, seven species of 

 wild ducks float about uncon- 

 cernedly or occasionally disport 

 themselves diving or showing 

 off their plumage to the more 

 demure females. A pair of mal- 

 lards busy themselves along the 

 shore with a brood of twelve 

 youngsters ; a pair of wood 

 ducks go in and out of a nest- 

 ing box built for them above the 

 water, and a pair of green- 

 winged teal are nosing about a 



far corner of the enclosure as though they would like to 

 start housekeeping of their own, and one never tires of 

 watching the canvasbacks and redheads and scaup ducks 

 diving for the grain in deep water. There is a low cliff 

 at one side of the pond, where the phcebes nest, with a 

 stone wall along the top where one can sit and look 

 down into the water and follow the movements of the 

 ducks as they nose along the bottom. Their wings are 

 held close against their sides while their great paddle- 

 like feet churn up the water behind them and their 

 bodies seem coated with a silver plating of air bubbles. 

 Not the least of the pleasure which one derives from 

 these waterfowl pets is the tameness which they develop. 

 They swim toward any one approaching the pond and 

 follow him around, and some will even eat from his hand. 

 Of course the majority have the feathers of one wing 

 clipped so that they cannot fly, though in the late sum- 

 mer when they have renewed their quills they often 

 rise from the pond and circle over the trees. Indeed 

 it has always been our custom to let them fly until the 

 approach of the hunting season makes it advisable to 

 curtail their freedom for their own sakes as well as for 

 ours. Last fall, however, one little green-winged teal 

 was not clipped until after the hunting season had been 

 in full swing for over a month. Each morning and eve- 

 ning it rose from the pond and circled over the house 

 directing its flight toward Cayuga Lake or the Inlet 

 Valley abounding with hunters. Each time we held 

 our breath until we again saw its dark form silhouetted 

 against the sky and watched it arch its wings and drop 

 like a leaf over the adjacent trees down once more to 

 the little pond which it recognized as its home. 



There is a snow goose that stands like a marble statue 



THIS GROUSE REARED BY THE WRITER, LOVED TO PLAY, DEMANDED HUMAN ATTENTION, 

 I HIS UKUuat, k and SH0WED UNUSUAL INTELLIGENCE. 



