THE



Avicultural Magazine


THE JOURNAL OF THE

AVICULTURAL SOCIETY



Fourth Series. —Vol. XII.—No. 4.— All rights reserved. APRIL, 1934



CAPTURING WATERFOWL IN AFRICA


By Ronald Stevens


For some considerable time my brother and I had long cherished

the thought of adding some of Africa’s interesting duck to our collection

of waterfowl and, as it is extremely difficult to import these birds in

the ordinary way, one of us decided to go out and get them.


Accordingly in March, 1933, I started my rather unique hunt in

Northern Zululand. On a previous visit to Lake St. Lucia in 1922,

there were, at that time, countless thousands of duck. Now, I dis¬

covered, the flocks were but a memory. People who knew the lake

informed me that the duck had gone with the disappearance of the

reed beds which, in those earlier days, used to form a wide margin to

the water.


That fascinating country between the Pongola and the Portuguese

border always had a good reputation for duck, so I turned my steps


thither.


Otobotini is a good centre for exploring Tongaland, and here I

enjoyed a few days with Mr. and Mrs. Rutherfoord. Mr. Rutherfoord

is an observant sportsman, and was able to give me valuable informa¬

tion. He told me that I had come at the wrong time, but if I would

return in August there would be abundance of duck. Excursions to

local pans and the confirmation of natives proved that he was right.



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