THE GAME BREEDER 



171 



he will be able to give us a line on breed- 

 ing snow geese." Mr. Crandall's hopes 

 will be realized. The only female raised 

 from this pair was two years old last 

 spring and mated with a captured snow 

 gander. She laid five eggs, all fertile, 

 but did not make her own nest nor did 

 she become broody. That is sometimes 

 the case the first year a goose lays. This 

 goose laid her eggs in different nests with 

 tame geese, and I expect that next year 

 she will choose one of these nesting 

 coops for her own nest. 



My old snow gander stands guard at 

 the nest every minute after the goose be- 

 gins setting, and his fierce attacks make 



let her set and raise her brood. Ten, 

 twelve, and eight were the three hatches 

 for this season. I have bought many 

 birds that were called black ducks, but 

 all were mixed breeds except these, which 

 I secured from Dr. Whealton. I feed 

 the ducklings exactly the same as the 

 goslings and let them run on the fresh 

 lawn, where they catch bugs to their 

 hearts' content. While the duck is set- 

 ting the drake stays at the pond, but 

 when she appears with her brood he re- 

 tires to the barnyard and stays with the 

 chickens, as if to say: "It's up to you, 

 mother, raising children is not in my line 

 — have your own way about it." 



Three Canada Geese and one Cackling Goose, Which is the Bantam of 

 Canada Geese, Property of H. J. Jager 



it impossible to approach within two 

 hundred feet of the nest. I have to 

 place a dish of water near by, or he 

 would suffer from thirst. The goose will 

 leave the nest to eat and drink at the 

 pond thirty rods away, but the gander 

 never leaves it. I am also hoping to in- 

 duce my two pair of blue geese to breed, 

 as the presence of the snow goose on its 

 nest seems to interest them greatly. 



I am now raising the pure wild black 

 mallard freely after several years' ex- 

 periment. One old duck has filled her 

 nest three times this season, resting only 

 a few days between settings. She makes 

 her nest in a corner in the barn, and 

 when she becomes broody I take the eggs 

 away and put them under a setting hen. 

 In a few days she makes a new nest and 

 lays an egg every morning, and thus the 

 process is repeated. The third time I 



I have had pintailed ducks also nest 

 in the barn, but only after several years' 

 residence on the place. I winter all my 

 water fowl in the basement of my barn, 

 and this seems to influence them to nest 

 there. The young of any bird will, I be- 

 lieve, breed freely on the place where 

 they were raised. 



Returning Readers. 



Many readers write thanking us for 

 keeping their subscriptions alive while 

 they were away. They say they are 

 reading the back copies of The Game 

 Breeder with interest, and they can see 

 that the industry promises to grow with 

 great rapidity and that sporting condi- 

 tions will be much improved, since game 

 soon will be abundant everywhere. 



