194 



THE GAME BREEDER 



much interest what you had to say of the pic- 

 ture. 



In the first place the birds have a slight re- 

 semblance to mallards. The markings are 

 what I would term "fierce." The drakes have 

 either too much white or two little white on 

 their neck, all that are visible have too much 

 white on their bodies. The females are equally 

 as bad, as their markings are far from right. 

 They have mallard blood in them without a 

 doubt as the shape of their heads show this. 

 I doubt very much whether any of them could 

 fly at all. They are a very bad cross of some 

 kind and resemble a bunch which the writer 

 purchased from a man in Louisiana a year or 

 so ago as "pure blood wild mallards, taken 

 from my choice flock of breeders." After get- 

 ting them we sold this bunch of choice breed- 

 ers of his to a man for market purposes. 



There are any number of this class of 

 breeders in the country and as fast as they are 

 proven unscrupulous they should be boycotted. 



Sometimes a thoroughly reliable dealer will 

 purchase stock from a man that appears to be 

 alright in every way but when their young are 

 reared bad blood will make itself evident. This 

 cannot be laid at the door of the man who sells 

 the eggs unless he is unwilling to replace the 

 eggs or return the money paid for them. 



Trusting that we have not taken up too 

 much of your valuable time and with kindest 

 regards, we remain'. 



Yours very truly, 



E. G. Showers. 

 Wisconsin. 



Editor Game Breeder : 



The ducks shown on the cover of the Jan- 

 uary issue are domestic fowl. Parties claim- 

 ing such to be of a wild nature know nothing 

 about wild water fowl. Birds of this nature 

 can be had at any poultry yard in Kansas. 

 These birds are not flyers and are slow on 

 foot. I would not prevent game politicians 

 from putting these on the song bird list. 



G. J. Klein. 



Kansas. 



Editor Game Breeder : 



Plainly, I do like your January number mal- 

 lards, on cover. They were doubtless wild at 

 one time, but high feeding has spoiled them. 

 They can fly no doubt but I should expect the 

 sportsman who bagged them would have as 

 good a time as he would in shooting tame de- 

 coys. I do not think they are strong enough 

 on the wing to please any true sportsman. I 

 may be wrong and if so would ask the breed- 

 ers' pardon and yours also. 



I have bought eggs — eggs — eggs from so 

 many so-called breeders— $1.00, $2.00, $3.00 per 

 dozen guaranteed wild mallards, only to find 

 when raised that they were just "puddle 

 ducks" such as I think you have in your pic- 

 ture. F. S. Morgan. 



Vermont. 



Editor Game Breeder : 



Noting picture of ducks as frontispiece of 

 your excellent paper, beg to say I have been 

 interested in breeding pure wild ducks for 

 many years. I never have seen broad white 

 collars on pure bred ducks, although they are 

 frequent in near pure breed. Full blooded 

 wild fowl retain the wild characteristics as to 

 position of head and neck when at rest. Never 

 have I had full bloods with such heavy bodies 

 as those you show. Our Country Club main- 

 tains a very fine bunch of wild mallards that 

 are added to with migration. I would be 

 pleased later to note whether these ducks were 

 not hatched from near wild mallard eggs. 

 Very truly, 



Iowa. C. E; Cook. 



Editor Game Breeder: 



Permit me to express my opinion on the 

 quality of ducks shown on front cover of the 

 January issue of Game Breeder. The breed- 

 ing of these ducks is very poor. I would con- 

 sider them a cross between a Pekin and a half- 

 breed wild mallard. As to their power of 

 flight, I do not believe they could fly over a 

 three-foot fence as they look very clumsy and 

 seem to have very short wings like the domes- 

 tic duck. Their coloring is far from perfect 

 as you will notice by the drakes which show 

 their Pekin ancestry, more noticeable than the 

 females. If I owned these ducks, I would sell 

 them on the market and obtain some pure 

 bred stock. 



Yours truly, 



Illinois. J. W. Turner. 



Editor Game Breeder: 



In the January number of The Game Breeder 

 of which I am a subscriber, attention is called 

 to the variety or specie of the ducks displayed 

 — (for information) — on the cover. Cuts from 

 photographs occasionally are misleading and 

 reproductions may in some cases lack develop- 

 ment of points fatal to the correct decision. 

 Obviously the birds are lacking in the strong 

 specific lines and usual character found in the 

 grey mallard of our marshes. Evidently their 

 long domestic career accounts for the lubberly 

 appearance they present in the cover picture. 

 Apparently two of the females have resemb- 

 lance of cross-bred grey and black mallards 

 and other indications are typical of the domes- 

 tic Rouen and grey mallard. 



I have bred and handled mallards more or 

 Jess for thirty years. Mainly to study the 

 habits of these and effect of the cross in 

 blood of specie. Crossing grey and black 

 mallards I found gave a noticeable addition to 

 hardihood — ^but eliminated the attractive fea- 

 ture of plumage. Continued breeding from 

 the domesticated wild blood from year to year, 

 produced heavy, lubberly birds with loss to 

 character of the original strain. Birds of this 

 degree were not given much to flight, but 

 rather to pilgrimages of waddling. Therefore 

 judging from the subjects on the cover page 



