258 CAS ARC A VARIEGATA 



old home. It was thought that this bird had actually walked across country a dis- 

 tance of one hundred and twenty miles ! 



This species does not seem to have been bred on the Continent before 1875, at 

 which time M. Courtois had exceptional success with two pairs. From the first pair 

 he obtained in two years forty-six eggs, and from them was able to rear thirty young. 

 From the second pair he raised twenty-eight young in two years (Courtois, Bull. 

 Soc. d'Acclimat., Paris, ser. 3, vol. 7, p. 169, 1880). It was afterward related that 

 this gentleman, who invested 400 francs in his original stock, received 5,470 francs 

 for the young between 1876 and 1884. In the Paris Gardens the species first bred 

 in 1882. 



Like its relatives of the Sheldrake group, the Paradise Ducks live long in confine- 

 ment. In 1883 the London Gardens apparently had a pair which had been received 

 in 1863, but according to Mitchell (1911) forty-one specimens averaged forty-seven 

 months each, the maximum being one hundred and seventy-two months. 



No hybrids have been described in the wild state, but in confinement it has mated 

 with the Ruddy Sheldrake and the Ashy-headed Goose (Chloephaga poliocephala) , 

 as recorded by Heinroth (1911). 



