35 



incidentally provided for from the tender shoots and roots of that 

 spontaneous vegetation which formed the favorite diet of the wood- 

 duck. A few crude and low wooden sheds, erected in various suit- 

 able places within the grounds, were designed for convenient shelter 

 and served here and there for nesting purposes. These necessary- 

 preparations completed, the establishment was at last in readiness for 

 the reception of its -inmates, the first batch of which was obtained 

 from young ducklings caught alive, or by means of eggs from the 

 nests of the wild birds. From time to time old birds were added to 

 this stock whenever they could be captured alive after having been 

 winged in shooting them. 



The species thus confined were chiefly the Mallard, Dusky- 

 Duck, Wood-Duck and blue-winged Teal, since they bred here and 

 could be easily obtained. Occasional experiments were likewise 

 made with the Pin-tail and American Swan, both of which freely 

 bred and raised their young in the enclosure, although they were 

 never fully domesticated, nor even transferred from the breed- 

 ing pen to the barn-yard. They remained virtually as wild all along 

 as if they never had been subjected to captivity in order to finally 

 transform them into fully tamed birds. They lived, bred and raised 

 their young here without having any more restraints put upon them 

 than were necessary for safe keeping. It was observed in case 

 of the Dusky-Duck and Mallard, which proved the most tractable 

 for domestication, by which I mean a complete metamorpho- 

 sis into tamed barn-yard fowl, that they resisted all efforts to 

 this purpose if transferred to the pen when over a year old, while 

 the reverse happened when they were captured young and raised 

 from eggs. The majority of them seemed to feel as much at 

 home here as in any nesting ground of their own choice, and gen- 

 erally returned whenever they were permitted to migrate in autumn. 

 They would breed the same as in the year previous, while others 

 again only called for a few days, after which they left for localities 

 unknown. In either case the females were accompanied by males, 

 with which they mated while abroad, and these transient guests after 

 migrating generally returned in late fall for a few days before their 

 final southward migration. 



This indicates that our migratory ducks not only remain with 

 us in spring, but also call in autumn on their way back to their cho- 



