MARBLED DUCK 9 



Food Value. Irby (1875) considered these birds "excellent eating," but other, 

 perhaps more discriminating, writers are of a different opinion. A. Chapman and 

 Buck (1910) consider them very bad eating, and Hume (Hume and Marshall, 1879), 

 is by no means enthusiastic about them. The species, he says, "is not amongst first 

 class ducks for the table. It ranks, I should say, little above the Shoveller and the 

 White-eyed Pochard, and after obtaining a goodly array of specimens, we never shot 

 it — first class ducks, Gadwall, Mallard and Pintail as well as the Pochard (Fuligula 

 ferina) and Common Teal being always available." 



Behavior in Captivity. Marbled Ducks have very seldom been kept alive in 

 collections, and seem to be ill-adapted to life in artificial surroundings. Lord Lilford 

 kept a large number, some of which found their way eventually into the collection of 

 the Duke of Bedford, where they bred (Hubbard, 1907). In 1893, Lord Lilford pre- 

 sented the London Gardens with four specimens, but these, and others acquired 

 later, did not do well, living on an average only eighteen months, the maximum being 

 eight years and seven months (P. C. Mitchell, 1911). Mr. Blaauw writes me that he, 

 too, obtained specimens from Lord Lilford, but they did not breed, and after a year 

 or so all six were killed by a stoat. Specimens have also been kept in the Ber- 

 lin Gardens (Muller-Liebenwalde, 1894). They have never been imported into 

 America. 



