CHAPTER II. 
FOOD. 
It is, I believe, universally admitted that the best staple 
food for all waterfowl is a mixture of wheat, buckwheat, and 
barley, giving, in addition, to newly-imported specimens a 
small quantity of round maize and hemp seed, especially in 
cold weather. Green food is also indispensable for their 
health, and the best forms in which this can be given are that 
of grass and duckweed, which last is the natural salad for 
aquatic birds. It also contains in the Spring innumerable 
quantities of small snails and insects, and possesses the property 
of stimulating breeding propensities. All sorts of waterfowl 
will greedily eat soft food, such as meal, but this is best avoided 
unless in the case of sickly birds, as a great deal of it is wasted, 
and it has a tendency to turn sour if thrown about. 
In view of the attraction for rats which grain possesses 
if sprinkled on the bank, or set about in pans to which they 
can obtain access, I have found it best to feed waterfowl 
in zinc vessels nailed to two floating cross-planks, or in partially 
submerged pans, so arranged that the birds have to put their 
heads under water to get at the grain, a system which entirely 
obviates the possibility of rats congregating at the birds’ 
feeding place. Well-boiled potatoes given hot and mixed with 
a little meal slightly sprinkled with salt, is very acceptable 
to most varieties of geese and the larger kinds of ducks. Stale 
bread thrown on the water is eagerly rushed after by ducks, and 
affords a wholesome variety in their bill of fare. It is most 
important that the necessity for green food should not be 
