12 DUCKS, GEESE AND SWANS 



nest in a wild state on preserves. The hand-rearing or 

 artificial propagation of ducks, which is fully described, 

 has been found to increase the numbers of the mallards 

 far more rapidly than they, are increased when the birds 

 nest in a wild state, and there seems to be no good rea- 

 son why many of the other ducks should not be success- 

 fully hand-reared. The game preserver can undertake 

 many interesting experiments, and I have no doubt it 

 will not be long before many species of ducks will be 

 multiplied by hand-rearing, which consists in stealing 

 the eggs from the ducks as they are laid and of hatching 

 them under barnyard hens or in incubators and in feed- 

 ing the young ducks until they are eight or nine weeks 

 old, when they are turned down on the pond or lake. 



All birds are comparatively tame during the nesting 

 season. There is a record of a ptarmigan being taken 

 from its nest on a mountain top in Colorado and handled^ 

 without causing it to desert the nest. Many birds, how- 

 ever, will cease laying and desert their nests when their 

 eggs are removed, and until the species of ducks which 

 thus far have not been hand-reared can be induced to 

 continue laying when their eggs are stolen, artificial 

 rearing, of course, is impossible, and they can only be 

 bred naturally. As I have suggested, there is an inter- 

 esting field for experiment with many species which at 

 present are not hand-reared in captivity on preserves. 



It is well known that all game thrives best in localities 

 where it breeds (or formerly bred) naturally in a wild 

 state and that birds which are introduced to new regions 

 often do not do well. A knowledge of the breeding 

 range of the wild ducks is important, therefore, and a 

 full account of the range of all of the species which are 



