148



Correspondence.



Ruddy Ducks, for I feel sure it must be possible to rear them, since Mr. St.

Quinton has succeeded with Eiders and a Harlequin, perhaps he would be good

enough to make a few suggestions for Mr. Job to try on a future occasion.

Personally I think he would stand a better chance if it were possible for him to

use hens instead of incubators. I have found it perfectly hopeless to try forcing

food down duckling’s throats, they invariably throw it up. I believe if Mr. Job

could manage to use a few hens and enclose a little pool of water and feed the

ducklings with flies (which could be caught very easily in a butterfly net and

quashed and sprinkled on the water) as well as prepared meal, etc., the hen

might show them the way to feed. I should also recommend him to try chopped

worms and maggots. I cannot see that Mr. Job used maggots at all, these could

surely be easily procured, and I have always found them the finest food possible

for ducklings, they wriggle and sometimes tempt ducklings who have previously

showed no inclination to feed. Mr. Job seems surprised that Canvasbacks and

Redheads should do well ; they are both nearly related, I understand, to the

Common Pochard, which in my experience is about the easiest of all ducklings

to rear, although usually very shy. Mr. Job will find the Cinnamon Teal quite

as easy to rear as the Blue-winged Teal ; both these are great maggot fanciers.

I cannot understand Mr. Job’s statement that the young of “ Gadwall and

Baldpate are identical.” In this country young Gadwalls and American Wigeon

are no more alike than Pintail and Mallard, and I cannot believe that young

Baldpates in America can differ greatly from young Baldpates bred in this

country from stock originally imported from America, and it seems likely that

the young of American and British Gadwall will be the same.


I fully endorse Mr. Job’s remarks re the difficulty of persuading various

ducklings of different ages to live amicably, and he was lucky in that he did not

lose more from this cause.


With regard to transporting fresh ducks’ eggs, I do not think that the one

clutch of eggs experimented with is sufficient evidence, one can get no proof that

they were fertile to start with ! though I acknowledge that it is extremely rare to

take a nest of wild bred ducks’ eggs which are not fertile, although I have done

so on more than one occasion, but surely if eggs can travel from Iceland to

England and hatch they should be able to stand the journey which those Mr.

Job mentions were subjected to, I am not sure that his eggs did not suffer from

too much care ! I think if the eggs were packed carefully in wood-wool and then

left to take care of themselves, the jolting of the cars would do all the turning

necessary. At the same time, I know that duck eggs, for some obscure reason

will not travel so well as other eggs — Pheasants, for instance —which I have sent

to Russia from Norfolk, and they have hatched out 76 per cent. ; these were

packed in wood-wool (which must be absolutely dry) in baskets of 300, the baskets

were then packed in a large wooden crate and the spaces between the baskets

being carefully stuffed up with straw, the lid of the crate was then screwed down

the crates started on their journey to Russia ; these eggs were certainly never

turned on the journey ! H. WORMALD.



