140 PROPAGATION OF WILD BIRDS 



bones dropped apart. Then the entire mass was given to 

 the ducks, who stripped the bones of every vestige of flesh 

 or skin. It was said that this started the ducks breeding a 

 month earlier than usual, and the eggs averaged much higher 

 in fertility than early eggs are apt to do. This resulted in a 

 stock of early broilers ahead of the season, at highest prices. 

 The fish diet, however, Wallace Evans says, can be overdone 

 and cause indigestion. About two good feeds a week seems 

 the consensus of opinion, but the more green vegetables that 

 can be grown the better. 



Cases of Skipping. For the encouragement of any who 

 try these methods without immediate success, a few further 

 suggestions may be of value. Even under the best of con- 

 ditions some fowl will skip laying, especially the first season. 

 Mr. Cox found that stock imported from England was harder 

 to breed than freshly caught wild birds over here. More- 

 over, some species are probably slower to adapt themselves 

 to changed conditions than others. Mr. Lockwood wrote, 

 for instance, that redheads which he purchased usually did 

 not lay till the second season after. Again, ducks which 

 have been kept for years without breeding, owing to un- 

 favourable conditions, may tend to have their sexual powers 

 atrophied or retarded. Though perhaps unlikely to breed 

 again, they may do so, as I have known this to occur, even 

 after a respite of several years. 



Retarded Breeding. Furthermore, not all young ducks 

 raised artificially breed when a year old. A successful 

 breeder of wood ducks told me that much of his young pin- 

 ioned stock does not breed till two years old, though broods 

 hatched early and fed carefully would breed the next season. 

 Lack of active exercise in flight and of the normal amount 

 of insect and other food which they would have secured in 

 the wild state probably causes slower development. Hence 



