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Obituary



raincoat and old felt hat, left the house with a basket of grain in

one hand and another full of bread-crusts in the other, a procession

of ducks came across the lawn to meet him. A pair of Mandarins,

impatient to reach him first, were not content to walk or run, but

flew, the duck landing on his head and the drake at his feet. Lord

Grey took up his accustomed position in a garden seat beneath a

large tree within a few yards of the water and was at once surrounded

by a quacking, whistling, chattering crowd of ducks of all kinds.

Some were so tame that they jumped on to the seat or on to their

owner’s head or shoulders, showing no fear whatever. I at first sat

on another seat at some little distance in case, being a stranger,

the birds should resent my presence ; but as they did not seem to

mind me I was invited to share the favoured seat. Lord Grey was

very blind, but he could just see the ducks as they came close, and

he seemed to know each individual. As one approached he pointed to

it : “ Is not that a Canvas-back ?” he said, and on my reply in the

affirmative, “ She has a nest by the other pond. She was hatched here

three years ago, and in her first autumn entirely left us and was

away for no less than two years. Then one evening during feeding time

she flew in and came straight up to the feeding place as if she had

never been away. Where can she have been ? ”


All the ducks were allowed to nest and rear their young under

natural conditions, broody hens never being employed, but all the same

quite a number of ducklings were reared each year, special feeding

cages placed at the sides of the ponds, just above water-level, allowing

the ducklings to enter for food but excluding the adult birds.


And now Lord Grey has had his wish to end his days in the home

he loved and amongst the birds he loved, and England has lost one

of her greatest sons and the birds a devoted friend.



D. S-S.



