98 Ronald Stevens—Capturing Waterfowl


There were no duck to be seen except a few Yellowbill and White-faced

Tree Duck.


By the end of March I was in Durban again with the knowledge

that the waterfowl of Africa were evidently migratory. Reports

received from many parts of the Union confirmed this, so now there

were only two courses open to me. I could wait until August when

the duck would return, or I could go at once to wherever they had

migrated. I decided on the latter course, but soon found myself

in difficulty again as no one could tell me where the fowl had gone.

Providentially, however, I received a letter from my friend Mr. A. F.

Moody, the author of Game Birds and Waterfowl in Captivity. He

had heard from a friend in Northern Rhodesia who informed him

that duck abounded in the shallows of the Kafue River. Putting

two and two together from further perusal of the letter, I concluded that

they would be up there at that moment. I decided to go.


By 1st May I had motored the seventeen hundred miles between

Durban and the marsh where I was then camped. After seeing the

hundreds of acres of barren water in the south, it was a gladdening

sight to see the vast flocks of fowl which were here. There were Yellow-

bill, Fulvous, and White-faced Tree Duck, Red-billed Pintail, Cape

Pochard, Hottentot Teal, Knobnosed Duck, and Spurwinged Geese.


After I had caught Redbill, Pochard, and Knobnosed Duck, not to

mention innumerable Tree Duck and Yellowbill which were not required,

it soon became evident that the first two species were obtainable as

young birds, as the natives soon hunted them up and brought the

ducklings into camp. So much the better, as hand-reared duck are

always preferable to adult wild-caught birds ; they not only become

tame in a much shorter time, but nearly always breed in captivity,

which the wild-caught adults are very reluctant to do.


Unfortunately, I had arrived unwittingly at the end of the breeding

season. The beautiful little Hottentot Teal had bred earlier, its young

were all on the wing now, and nothing would induce them to go into

the traps so carefully set for them. According to notes I had gathered

previously from books, I ought to have been in time for catching

young birds still incapable of flight, but the natives declared that

they bred in December and January. Later, five adults were caught



