142 PROPAGATION OF WILD BIRDS 



species have seldom been kept successfully in this country 

 for any length of time, such as scoters, eiders, mergansers, and 

 the like. F. C. Walcott, however, who has visited various 

 English preserves and experimenters with wildfowl in Great 

 Britain, tells me that all such species are kept there with- 

 out trouble, being fed partly on fish and ground-up crusta- 

 cea and shellfish, and also on grain, which they all learn to 

 like. Even sheldrakes will eat grain with eagerness. In 

 feeding grain to mixed flocks of ducks I myself have noticed 

 that canvasbacks, redheads, and scaups are just as eager 

 for the grain as any others. Mr. Walcott says that English 

 experimenters have even bred the eider, though no one has 

 yet done so with the canvasback, probably owing largely to 

 inability to secure stock. 



Possible Experiments. Doubtless some interesting ex- 

 periments could be worked out on the seacoast. For ex- 

 ample, I have heard that on the coast of Maine eiders have 

 been tamed sufficiently so that they could be let out to pick 

 up their own food on the sea beaches, along with domestic 

 ducks. I have no doubt but that any of these maritime 

 species could be made to breed, certainly after one season of 

 restraint, by a plan somewhat as follows : Fence in with 

 wire a few acres on the edge of a fresh or salt marsh near the 

 coast. If it is on tidewater, some high and dry land should 

 be included, in case of flood tides. There should either be a 

 small pond or part of a ditch or creek included. Probably 

 the best location would be where there was a direct connec- 

 tion with the sea, to bring in minnows and other sea food. 

 At any rate small fry could be netted and fed to the ducks in 

 a pool spaded out in the marsh. Snails, mussels, clams, 

 shrimp, crabs, and various other food would be easy to get, 

 also sea-weeds. I have often watched flocks of scoters div- 

 ing and feeding on submerged mussel beds. They eat small 



