172 PROPAGATION OF WILD BIRDS 



Cook. Henry Cook for the first week uses stiff, grated 

 custard as above. During the next week he mixes this with 

 Spratt's wild-duck meal. Then he drops the custard, and 

 feeds only the duck meal, scalded. At three weeks, or 

 when the first feathers show, he begins to use chick-grain 

 mixed with the duck meal. In regard to using the com- 

 mercial duck meals full strength, some consider them too 

 rich, but more dilute them for reasons of economy, finding 

 that the ducklings do just as well in this way. 



Seidler. Ludwig Seidler begins with a little egg, but 

 soon feeds on barley meal and Spratt's wild-duck meal, 

 half and half. He also adds oatmeal to the mash at two 

 weeks. At three weeks he grinds up various grains quite 

 fine, not much corn, not over one fifth, and mixes it with 

 the mash, also a little crissel. Of the latter he uses a double 

 handful to a fourteen-quart pail of mash, once a day, in the 

 morning. 



Barley Meal. The use of barley meal as an ingredient 

 is particularly an English method. F. C. Walcott, on his 

 visits to the English preserves, found the most successful 

 breeders and experimenters using this, and very insistent 

 upon it. They consider it especially important for marine 

 ducks, and for the young of kinds hard to raise. Captain 

 Oates in his book says that barley is apt to cause indigestion 

 unless begun gradually. He suggests at first using four 

 to one duck meal to barley meal, increasing to half and half, 

 also diluting the barley meal with 25 per cent, of bran. A. 

 G. Mac Vicar advises using the coarse grade, not the finely 

 ground. 



Cox. John A. Cox has a most original method, not gen- 

 erally applicable from lack of the material. He was very 

 successful in raising rare kinds of young ducks by feeding 

 them entirely at first on female horseshoe crabs, raw. These 



