352



Mr. Herbert K. Job,



most kinds of wild ducks are readily kept in confinement, very few

of them have been made to breed, so far as is generally known.

Birds of these species in parks or preserves are usually trapped or

wounded individuals taken in the adult state. Though outwardly

tame, they usually show no inclination to mate. I have held the

theory that if stock hand-reared from the egg could be secured, it

would probably prove tame and contented and would more readily

breed. From such beginning's it might prove possible to restore

some of the species that have mostly vanished from the eastern

part of the country.


The desired opportunity to embark on this line of research

and experiment came to me this season through the liberality of

certain gentlemen who, like myself, are keen over this problem of

the wildfowl. Ample funds were donated whereby as Ornithologist

of the Storrs Agricultural Experiment Station under Federal auspices,

I was enabled to organize a Government expedition to the Canadian

Northwest, the purpose being to bring back eggs or young of as

many species of wild ducks as possible, to study methods of feeding,

rearing and breeding and to give the results to the public in Bulletins

of the Experiment Station.


Now, on the very face of it, doesn’t this sound like a crazy,

ill-considered scheme, to send out a party at large expense into

a wilderness entirely new to the leader, and expect him, not

only to find the cunningly concealed nests of the various kinds of

wild ducks with their diverse habits, but to hatch out the eggs

artifically despite the prevalent idea that wild duck’s eggs cannot be

moved or touched without spoiling them, rear the wild little creatures

that no one had ever raised before, and then to bring back the

delicate things safely through five days of slambanging in the cars—

a journey of some 2000 miles ! Nevertheless, the outcome in this

case justified the risk—as this article and the sequel will show.


The plan of these articles is to sketch the adventures and

achievements of the expedition, leaving it for the Bulletins of the

Experiment Station to present the full detail and the further working

out of the various problems.


Through unavoidable delay the expedition was unable to start

until June thirteenth, 1912, which was dangerously near the hatch-



