WILD DUCKS

HOW TO REAR AND SHOOT
THEM

BY
CAPTAIN W. COAPE OATES


WITH 4 PHOTOGRAVURE PLATES FROM DRAWINGS
BY G.E. LODGE, AND 12 ILLUSTRATIONS
FROM PHOTOGRAPHS



LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
NEW YORK AND BOMBAY
1905

All rights reserved

TO

MY WIFE

PREFACE

The main object of this book is to assist those who are anxious to rear wild ducks on economical lines. The Author is not without hope that the pages which it contains may even be of some use to old hands at the game.

CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

SELECTION OF STOCK AND THEIR HOME

WILD DUCKS

CHAPTER I

SELECTION OF STOCK AND THEIR HOME

The first point to be decided by the would-be owner of wild-fowl is the locality where he intends to turn down his stock.

Wild-fowl can undoubtedly be reared far from any large piece of water, but I am strongly of opinion that birds do better on a good-sized stretch of water with a stream running into it and out of it. Given these advantages, the running water must be constantly bringing a fresh supply of food, especially after a fall of rain sufficiently heavy to cause a rise of water; further, if the stream which runs out of our lake empties itself into a large river, the latter will, when it floods or rises rapidly, cause our stream to back up and bring in a further supply of food from the main river.

Some morning the ducks are absent from their accustomed haunts, and if we walk up to the spot where the stream enters the lake, ten to one we