ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY 41 



Wild Ducks Come Home to Roost 



The following very suggestive report of the success Mr. Jack Miner 

 of kingsville. Ontario, has had in harboring wild fowl and banding them, 

 thereby securing valuable migration data, is copied from the issue of the 

 Illinois Sportsman for Dec. 16, 1920: 



Several years ago Mr. Miner set some wild duck eggs under an old 

 Plymouth Rock hen and reared to maturity four mallard ducks. He 

 named these Polly, Delilah. Susan and Helen. On the leg of each one 

 he placed an aluminum tag, on which were printed the words "Box 48, 

 Kingsville, Ontario." This was in the year 1912. That fall the birds 

 migrated and in December Helen was killed in Mitchell Bay, Lake St. 

 Clair. On March 14, 1913, Polly came back to Jack Miner's pond, where 

 she was raised. On March 18 Delilah came home and on March 30 

 Susan, though wounded in the wing and foot, found her way back. 

 They migrated again that autumn and next year Polly came home on 

 exactly the same date, March 14. On March 21 Delilah came home for 

 the second time. Each year these birds raised a brood. They migrated 

 for the third time and in the spring of 1915 Delilah reached home first 

 on March 13 and Polly arrived on March 16. This time Polly was 

 wounded, having had the top of her bill shot away, and she did not 

 migrate that fall. Delilah, however, left on time and returned for the 

 fourth time the next spring. In 1916 she again migrated and returned 

 in the spring. Again in 1917 she left with her brood for the South and 

 returned in the spring, 1918. completing her sixth round trip without 

 mishap. That fall she again raised a brood which she took south with 

 her. In the spring of 1919 Delilah was seen by members of Mr. MinerV 

 family, which makes the seventh time she returned after spending her 

 winters in the South. However, before it was possible to trap her to 

 record the absolute evidence from the tag on her leg, she disappeared 

 and Mr. Miner has reason to believe that she was illegally killed by a 

 man living near him. 



Not only did these ducks return home each year, but many of those 

 which they raised also returned with them. All the ducks raised by 

 Mr. Miner were banded and each spring when they come back they are 

 trapped and a record is kept of each one that has returned, at which 

 time Mr, Miner bands any other birds caught that have alighted with 

 his birds as visitors. In this way many hundreds of aluminum bands 

 have been sent broadcast over the country and much has been learned 

 as to their lines of flight from the records obtained when these birds 

 have been killed. 



Mr. Miner has in preparation a book dealing with his experiences 

 with wild ducks and geese, illustrated with maps, showing their lines 

 of migratory flight, as proved by his activities in banding and releasing 

 these birds. We feel sure that this work will prove interesting to all 

 lovers of wild life. 



These records prove two things conclusively — that birds do return to 

 the place where they are hatched and that they know their friends and 

 quickly recognize where they are safe. In less than two days after 

 these birds returned to Jack Miner's concrete ponds immediately adjacent 

 to his dwelling house in Kingsville, Ontario, he was able to get his 

 hands on them. Imagine such a thing being possible after these birds 

 had been shot at from practically every damp spot that they crossed 

 in their migration to the South and their winter sojourn there! 



