AMERICAN DUCK CLUBS 101 



grounds and to sell them alive for propagation and as 

 food in the markets. 



The duck clubs must learn, also, that they should 

 create as well as destroy on their own marshes and that 

 it is necessary to create before an army of guns can 

 safely shoot any species of game in large numbers. 



The employment of a few skilled gamekeepers, or even 

 of natives living in the vicinity who know the habits of 

 the furry and winged enemies of game and how to trap 

 and shoot them, would be followed by a decided increase 

 in the numbers of the game. This is especially true pro- 

 vided the shooting be discontinued at the end of Feb- 

 ruary or early in March and even before those dates on 

 certain ponds which should be set aside for breeding 

 places. 



It would be interesting and profitable also, at the 

 Northern clubs at least, to undertake the hand-rearing 

 of fowl on a large scale, and some species — the wood- 

 duck, the Florida dusky duck, the mallard, the blue- 

 winged teal and some others — could be propagated, no 

 doubt, in large numbers in the South. I have seen the 

 mallard breeding in the care of a gamekeeper as far South 

 as North Carolina. 



The duck clubs which may undertake to increase the 

 ducks (I am pleased to observe that some recently have 

 done so) should be encouraged by legislation, as I have 

 often pointed out. They should be classed as breeders 

 and permitted to regulate their shooting during a long 

 open season, without State interference, and they should 

 be permitted to sell some of the game alive for propaga- 

 tion or as food, in the markets, under State regulation and 

 to licensed dealers, of course. 



