54 



THE NIDIOIvOGIST. 



DOMESTICATION OF THE CANADA 

 GOOSE AND BRANT. 



WOOD DUCKS AND BOB-WHITE. 



The article "Domesticating Wild Ducks 

 and Geese," published in the November 

 NiDiOLOGiST, reminds me that I am in- 

 debted to Miss Sabie Oulton of Prince Ed- 

 ward Island for some interesting facts con- 

 cerning the domestication of the Canada 

 Goose {Branta canadensis) and Brant 

 {Branta bernicla). 



Miss Oulton 's father has kept wild 

 Geese for years. He usuall}^ winters ten or 

 twelve, and has two or three broods of 

 j'oung each season. The Geese are not 

 confined during the breeding season, but 

 are at libertj' to select their own nesting 

 site, which is always near fresh water. 

 As to their success in hatching and rearing 

 their young. Miss Oulton says: "We have 

 one Goose that has never lost an e:^g or 

 Gosling, and she has been laying five 

 years. ' ' 



Mr. Oulton is a sportsman, and has his 

 Geese trained to "stand on the lines" and 

 uses them for decoys. They are very much 

 attached to their home. He often liberates 

 them at the "bar"' three miles awaj^ — where 

 he has been shooting — and they always re- 

 turn home themselves. 



The Brant Mr. Oulton has had about 

 seven j'ears. They have never laid any 

 eggs since he had them, but he thinks they 

 would if they were not used as decoys 

 during the spring shooting. They were 

 obtained by keeping those which are slight- 

 ly wounded while shooting. 



Under date of April 26, 1893, Miss Oul- 

 ton writes: "We have eleven now, and 

 have them trained like the Geese. They 

 are beauties, and father would not take 

 any price for them, 



Bknjamin Hoag. 



Stephcntown, New York. 



Frank B. Webster writes us that the next issue 

 of the Ornithologist and Oologist, which has 

 been behind, and reported in some sources ' ' sus- 

 pended," will combine three numbers in one. 



Apropos of the article about the Duck's 

 nest in your last issue, I would like to tell 

 you about a nest of Wood Ducks my father 

 found. It was about 1856, in the early part 

 of April, and they were fishing for alewives 

 in the Connecticut river near Hartford. 

 While pulling in the net thej- saw a Duck 

 fl)" along the shore close to them, and go 

 into a hole in a large apple tree near by. 

 This tree was hardly five rods from an occu- 

 pied house, and perhaps three times as far 

 from a well-traveled road leading to the 

 city. There was nothing to hide it from 

 the road, and only a few trees in the imme- 

 diate neighborhood. 



The trunk was hollow and had a wide 

 split in one side from a height of six feet 

 nearly to the ground. After they were 

 through fishing my father looked in here 

 and saw a nest with about a dozen eggs in 

 it within easy reach. In the evening he 

 got a basket and went for them, bnt another 

 man had gone there ahead of him and 

 taken them home. He set them under a 

 hen, and in a few days they hatched out- 

 The chicks were very wild from the first 

 moment they broke the shell, and some of 

 them escaped then. The men made a tight 

 (?) pen for them and thought they must 

 stay in, but they got through seemingly 

 impossible holes and escaped one by one. 

 The instant they got outside they were safe, 

 as they could hide like a Partridge. 



This building so near travel must have 

 been unusual even then, as my father says 

 he never knew of another nest. The only 

 one that I have heard of since 1880 was 

 taken about eight years ago in the moun- 

 tains, perhaps a half mile from any houses. 



About that time, too — 1885 — my father 

 found a Quail's (Bob- white's) nest under 

 a rail fence and actually within twenty feet 

 of a much-traveled road, with a line of 

 horse-cars running every half hour, and on 

 the other side of the field a steam railroad. 

 I know that Bob-whites are not especially 

 shy about nesting, but to come as close as 

 that to civilization seems a little unusual, 

 to say the least. 



Henry R. Buck. 



Wetherfield, Conn. 



