tained some information respecting the state of affairs before these 

 changes happened, along with a brief summary of a series of system- 

 atic efforts, which were made by him for over thirty years, to do- 

 mesticate several species of wild ducks which seemed to suit best 

 for this purpose on account of their tendency to become easily 

 tamed. 



It is from this source, supplemented by frequent personal inves- 

 tigation of his ingeniously devised artificial breeding grounds, that I 

 enabled to add a few notes of interest concerning the domestication 

 of some of our wild water-fowl, and their habits under confinement. 



Nearly all of the species of wild ducks which now occur 

 about the shores of Lake Erie once frequented Lake Chautauqua be- 

 fore they were harrassed or driven away. Among them, as the 

 most conspicuous, Mr. Irwin enumerates the Mallard, Dusky-Duck, 

 Shoveller, Red-Head, Blue-Bill, Widgeon, Pin-Tail, Buffle-Head, 

 Ring-necked Duck, Blue-winged and Green-winged Teal, Ruddy- 

 Duck, Gadwall, Golden Eye, Scoter, Old Wife and Canvass-Back. 

 Their ranks were sometimes swelled by the occasional occurrence of 

 the Cormorant, Canada Goose, White-fronted Goose, Snow Goose 

 and American Swan. All of the above species comprised at that 

 time, as now, the ordinary visitors, with the exception of the Gadwell 

 and Canvass-Back, both of which have always been rare on the in- 

 land waters of Western New York. The thick fringes of weeds and 

 tall reeds along the shores of Lake Chautauqua are also still the 

 favorite haunts of the Eared and Pied-bill Grebes, along with some 

 scattered specimens of the Mud-Hen (Fitlica Americana), which like 

 these two divers, breeds here. The great abundance of various 

 species of fish, principally perch and sun-fish, attract moreover each 

 spring and autumn, the Goosander and hooded and common Mer- 

 gansers, which last species bred here once in great abundance. 



For the purpose of trying the final domestication of as many 

 of the aboye species as could be conveniently obtained, a small lot 

 of about an acre in extent and situated on the very edge of the lake 

 itself, was, at an early time, selected for this purpose. The 

 heavy weeds within that enclosure afforded secure shelter for the 

 naturally shy and wild birds to hide in and enabled them to avoid 

 detection on part of their many enemies, such as hawks, owls, mixks, 

 etc., while a large amount of natural food supply was thus also 



