THE OOLOGIST 29 
Domestication of North American Wild 
Fowl Continued. 
The writer has now in his enclos- 
ures, seven different varieties of wild 
geese, and fourteen of wild ducks, con- 
fined to those represented in the A. 
O. U. list, and finds the Mallard, the 
Wood Duck, the Dusky Duck and the 
Red Head to be the most tractable; 
and the Baldpate, the Sprig, and Teal 
to be the wildest. 
Among the geese the Canada Goose 
is by far the easiest bird tamed. It is 
no special trouble to domesticate Can- 
ada Geese until they remain on your 
place and rear their young, in practi- 
cally the same manner that tame 
geese will. 
In commencing experiments of this 
character, it is always best to pinion 
your birds; that is, tie a string around 
the outer joint of the wing just outside 
‘of the joint proper, but not so as to 
encircle the thumb joint or bastard 
wing. Draw this string as tight as 
you can; then take a pair of very 
sharp shears or tree pruners and clip 
off the outer joint of the wing just 
outside of the string. Hold your bird 
in your hand until you are certain 
that the string has compressed the 
muscles, arteries and veins to such 
an extent that your bird,is not bleed- 
ing. If you find this to be the case, 
place him on the ground, and let him 
go, From that time on he will take 
eare of himself. Do not attempt to 
pinion a freshly trapped or caught 
bird. Do not pinion him until after 
he has been in confinement a consid- 
erable period of time; that is, long 
enough for him to learn to eat and to 
be satisfied with the food he gets in 
confinement. This is imperative; oth- 
erwise your bird will not eat and will 
die. Until such times as he is ready 
to be pinioned, keep him from flying 
by clipping the feathers closely from 
one wing, and do not pinion your birds 
when it is extremely cold nor when it 
is very warm, nor when they are 
moulting, or you will lose them. 
The best way to get along this line 
is to procure from the hunters of your 
vicinity, such wounded or wing tip- 
ped birds as they may come into pos- 
session of. 
Messrs. Wenz & Mackensen of 
Yardley, Pennsylvania have _ kindly 
loaned to us for the purpose of this 
issue, six of the plates herewith pre- 
sented, viz: The plate showing the 
Australian, Black, European, Mute and 
American Whistling Swans; the plate 
showing the Egyptian, Chinese, Toul- 
ouse, Emden Geese, and the Mallard, 
Crested, Indian Runner, Ducks, and 
Cranes, the plate showing the drove of 
Canada Geese; the plate showing the 
Wood, ‘Mandarin, Black, Redhead, 
Pintail,- Baldpate, Gray Call, White 
Call and Mallard Ducks, as well as the 
two small plates showing the Chinese 
Mandarin and the Wood Duck. 
The half tones herewith numbered 
Plates 13 and 14 are from views tak- 
en in our own duck yard at Lacon, [l- 
linois. 
We should like very much to see 
our readers encourage the propogation 
of North American Wild Fowl, believ- 
ing that that is the ultimate solution 
of the question of preventing our vast 
flocks of wild fowl from ultimately be- 
coming totally extinct. 
a al 
Wanted. 
One pair each of the following live 
birds in good condition, (Wing tipped 
birds would be satisfactory): 
Florida, Mottled Cinnamon 
Teal, Shoveller, Canvas Back, Ameri- 
can Scaup, Lesser Scaup, Ring-neck- 
ed American Golden Eye, Barrow’s 
Golden Eye, Bufflehead, Old Squaw, 
Harlequin, Ruddy, and Masked Ducks. 
Also Lesser Snow, Blue,  Ross’s 
Snow, American White-frented, Bean, 
White-cheeked, Cackling, and Emper- 
cr Geese = 
For which I will pay~the highest 
market price. 
R. M. Barnes, Lacon, III. 
