ORNAMENTAL WATERFOWL. 23 
be gradually introduced into the dietary, remembering always to 
give a plentiful supply of fresh water in shallow dishes, the best 
being that which is procured from a pond and containing 
duckweed, which if collected in the cool of the morning or 
at sunset, will be found full of animalcula, larvae, and other 
microscopic forms of life which are excellent for the young 
birds. It may be proper to remark that although grass is a 
natural and very proper food for ducklings, it should always 
when given to them be chopped small with a pair of scissors, 
not thrown down to them at full length, as the blades are 
often eagerly swallowed whole, and form a dangerous impaction 
between the crop and gizzard from which death will result. 
As the birds lose their down and assume their feathers, 
grain should be given thrown into water ; groats chopped 
or whole, canary, millet, wheat, hemp seed, buckwheat, barley 
and split Indian corn (maize) may all be used successively. 
Animal food may be supplied sparingly, especially when 
the young birds are shooting their feathers ; nothing is better 
than minced liver well boiled, the liquor poured upon stale 
crusts or broken ship biscuit, and well mixed up together. 
Small worms, slugs, meal worms, and maggots of various kinds 
may be offered, but care should be taken not to give Jarge 
earth worms, for Mr. Berney states that when swallowed 
whole by young ducklings they have actually been known to eat 
their way out of them, biting through the delicate intestines 
and causing the death of the bird. 
The young of the swan tribe may be fed in much the 
same manner as ducklings, but when the birds are very wild 
it is not always possible to feed them from troughs, in which 
case pieces of Spratt’s biscuits, stale bread, groats, &c., may 
be thrown on the water, which will have the effect of 
accustoming the cygnets to their keeper. Goslings of nearly 
