May, 1918 
FOREST AND STREAM 
275 
The ducks at Amston have ideal winter quarters and they seem to enjoy life thoroughly 
water-level can be driven down into the 
mud, leaving small spaces between them 
to allow free flow of water and entrance 
of small fish. This size accommodates 
about two hundred ducks. The aim should 
be to have it small and low, to make it as 
warm as possible. Even without artificial 
heat ice seldom forms at all, even in the 
bitterest spells of winter, and even then 
not enough to do any harm. For two 
winters now we have brought the ducks 
through almost without loss, and I would 
not now be without such a device. The 
stock should be released on the pond as 
soon as the ice goes out in the spring, as 
some species are early breeders, beginning 
in April. Wild-trapped stock cannot be 
expected to breed the first season in captiv¬ 
ity, but they are apt to begin the second, 
if food and conditions are right, and to 
do still better the third year. 
O UR pond is a most fascinating sight, 
and I never tire of watching the 
varied and interesting happenings, 
especially the flying in of wild flocks at 
dusk. The eggs are hunted out in the 
swamp, and the young are reared with 
hens or bantams in a field within the en¬ 
closure, being let out on the pond when 
well feathered. The coming season we shall 
try the plan of letting some of 
them rear their own second lay¬ 
ings, as the pond seems free 
from destructive vermin. There 
is no end of detail to this fas¬ 
cinating subject. I will gladly 
give information and published 
instructions to any who are in¬ 
terested in this subject or kin¬ 
d-red matters. 
Another line of work here is 
the propagation of upland 
game-birds. Selecting the 
breeding and management of 
quail as a specially typical and 
important matter, we are work¬ 
ing with the common bob-white 
and the California or valley 
quail. Last season, our first, we 
were able to rear to maturity 
broods of both species, and have 
worked out a satisfactory tech¬ 
nique for rearing. This prob¬ 
lem seems pretty well solved, 
and it remains now to work out the de¬ 
tail of the management of the young after 
they have been reared. The ideal to aim 
at, since the young do not at first stand 
confinement well, is to be able to let them 
remain free and hold them in the vicinity 
by feeding, catching up enough for breed¬ 
ing operations next season when the se¬ 
vere weather comes on, or even enticing 
whole coveys under shelter during Janu¬ 
ary and February, but aiming to hold most 
of the stock to the locality in the wild 
state. This we are trying to work out 
in the vicinity of Amston. 
Another Aiethod which we have tried 
with the bob-white is as follows: Secur¬ 
ing southern stock, we wintered it in pens, 
and in March liberated some of the birds, 
keeping the rest for artificial propagation. 
While it is impossible to be sure just what 
happened, we know that whereas the sea¬ 
son before there were no wild quail about, 
this winter there are a number of coveys, 
one numbering about thirty birds, and we 
know that some at least were reared in the 
vicinity. This is certainly the way to lib¬ 
erate wild stock with any likelihood of 
their remaining to breed in the locality:— 
keep and feed them in small lots in en¬ 
closures amid some suitable natural 
haunts, and in spring let them come out 
gently, of their own accord, placing food 
in the vicinity. 
The California or valley quail is a splen¬ 
did bird, easy to raise, and the same is true 
of the scaled and Gambel’s quails, the one 
question being as to how- much winter se¬ 
verity in the open they can stand. Last 
season we raised the California quail, on 
a small scale, from eggs shipped from C. 
H. Shaw, Arden Game Farm, Newark, 
California, using bantams on free range 
in a fenced field, maturing them success¬ 
fully. I cannot yet determine the result 
with those liberated during this exception¬ 
ally severe winter, but the few held in a 
pen, at present writing, have come through 
the long cold period with little loss. They 
are delightful birds to manage, and Mr. L. 
S. Crandall tells me that they are very 
popular in England, where considerable 
numbers are raised, enough so as to sell in 
the markets at moderate prices. 
While pheasantry, at least with the more 
common species, needs no experimentation, 
we shall rear a few for demonstration and 
instruction purposes. There is another line 
not so well known on which we are begin¬ 
ning experiments, the propagation of wild 
pigeon species. We are starting with the 
band-tailed pigeon of the west, a fine large 
and hardy species, and also the common 
mourning dove. Little has been 
done with the former, but the 
latter has been successfully bred 
by at least several people. They 
are bred regularly at the New 
York Zoological Park, and from 
one pen they are allowed to go 
and come at will, not attempt¬ 
ing to migrate, since they have 
food, shelter and companionship. 
I intend to try this out, and see 
if a local resident colony cannot 
be maintained. We have wire 
enclosures at the edge of some 
woods, to give them surround¬ 
ings as natural and congenial as 
possible. 
Work with attracting the 
smaller song and insectivorous 
birds is also carried on. Birds 
are fed in winter, and many 
nesting-boxes erected about the 
preserve are occupied, especially 
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