THE GAME BREEDER 



177 



my thoroughbreds might be called "near- 

 mallards." By crossing them with the 

 white Indian runners I get duplicates of 

 some of the pure breeds I have seen. 

 Certainly I believe in introducing new 

 blood into a flock; but, believe me, I 

 want to know where that new blood 

 comes from. 



A white Pekin duck (or drake) can 

 make a good attempt at flying if he is 

 kept in the company of good flyers. The 

 mallards get to be the tamest of ducks 

 if you feed and make pets of them. But 

 the taste does not change when they are 

 hand-reared, and, anyway, it is the taste 

 that tells. 



I expect to sample more than one gray 

 and black before the snow flies and judge 

 for myself if my ducks are up to the 

 standard. 



Just a word about game laws. Either 

 cut out laws or enforce them. There are 

 some rabbit hunters who will spare a fine 

 ruffed grouse or quail during the closed 

 season on the same. But they are few 

 and scattering like hens' teeth. There 

 are a few who can remember the closed 

 season rules, but they also are few. 



[The Black or Dusky duck of the ornitho- 

 logists is known throughout the central and 

 western States as "The black Mallard." Most 

 breeders use the proper name, black duck, 

 and the proper name will be used more and 

 more everywhere as the game breeding indus- 

 try grows. We have had several inquiries 

 about black mallards and black ducks. All 

 the birds are properly named and pictured in 

 "Our Feathered Game." 



The taste of any meat is much afifected by 

 food. A hand reared, corn fed mallard is as 

 good as a tame duck. Wild rice, celery, 

 acorns, duck weeds, water cress and other 

 wild foods improve the flavor just as a diet 

 of fish and shore refuse may destroy the 

 flavor of a wild duck. The far-famed canvas 

 back, when feeding on wild celery on Chesa- 

 peake Bay or on the lakes of Wisconsin and 

 elsewhere, is a splendid table fowl. It is not 

 regarded as a very good duck on the Pacific 

 coast when its food imparts a fishy flavor. 

 Ruffed grouse sometimes become too hitter to 

 be desirable when feeding on buds late in the 

 year. The sage grouse tastes strongly of sage 

 when feeding on the artemesia, but young 

 birds feeding on grasshoppers are excellent. 

 Food has very much to do with the palatahil- 

 ity_ of all game. See the opinion of Mr. 

 Chiles, of Kentucky, on this point, in his ar- 

 ticle in this issue. — Editor.] 



The Flavor of Canvas-backs. 



A good story was told, long ago, about 

 an Eastern senator, who claimed at a 

 Washington dinner that there were no 

 ducks equal to the celery-fed canvas- 

 backs procured on the Chesapeake. An 

 Ohio senator quietly procured some can- 

 vas-backs from the Sandusky marshes, 

 Ohio, and invited his friend to dine. 

 When the 'last named renewed the asser- 

 tion about the merits of the birds he was 

 informed that he was eating ducks from 

 Ohio. He was much surprised, but ad- 

 rhitted the game was of excellent flavor. 

 The duck food in the Sandusky marshes 

 is excellent, or it was so until the carp 

 were introduced and rooted up much of 

 the wild food. The Ohio clubs now are 

 said to feed tons of grain to their ducks. 



Patriotic Work. 



One of our New England members 

 writes:- "Our object is to make this one 

 of the biggest game farms in the United 

 States and I think we can as we have the 

 ways and means. Our young birds are 

 coming along in good shape and we are 

 going to keep everything for brood stock 

 for another year. We will have about 

 400 ringneck hens for laying and about 

 200 mallard ducks. This ought to give 

 us a chance to show something. 



I hdve also ordered some bob white 

 quail and we will do something in that 

 line in another year. We have a permit 

 for trapping ducks for brood stock and 

 the chances for trapping teal, black 

 ducks, and quite a few other varieties 

 are very good. We have a large pond 

 with plenty of feed in it on the farm. 

 I have black duck and wood duck and 

 they seem very much at home and will 

 feed with the others." 



Game Officers and Permits. 



All patriotic state game officers should 

 issue permits to game breeders to trap 

 the necessary brood stock. Since it is 

 evident they will produce thousands of 

 game birds and many w'll be sold for re- 

 stocking. No good reason can be assigned 

 why permits should not be issued in 



