very favourite places for ducks to lay in; also old
stick heaps and the bottom of thick hedges. My main point is this, that
if you take the trouble to regularly feed your wild ducks morning and
evening and keep them quiet, you will soon find that you can get them
_to lay where you want them to lay_, and the places you select will
naturally be those where they are secure, or nearly so, from their
natural enemies, such as rats, cats, weasels, moles, and other vermin.

This is the first secret of success.

I have seen wild ducks so tame that within a fortnight from the time
they first joined my own birds they were eating maize close to my feet.

Having obtained my piece of water and decided on the spot where I mean
to feed my birds, the next step is to get the breeding stock.

I consider that the best time to purchase the stock is December, as this
gives ample time for the birds to pair and get used to their
surroundings before the breeding season commences; one is almost sure to
get some cold weather in January, and the cold will make the birds more
dependent on the food given to them, and therefore more easily managed.

Next as to the stock and where to get it.

I advise you to obtain your birds from different places, two or three
birds from each place, taking care to get fairly young birds, and not
older than, say, two years. By this means you will get a certain amount
of change of blood, particularly during the second season, when the
different broods, which have been well mixed at hatching time, pick
their mates and breed.

[Illustration: COMING IN TO FEED]

I believe that this method is more satisfactory than buying eggs in the
first instance, as in the latter case you cannot tell for certain how
long the eggs you purchase have been laid, nor what the birds are like
which laid them. We next come to the question of the proportion of
drakes to ducks. On a small piece of water, one drake to every three
ducks will do very well, but if you have at your disposal a large lake,
I am strongly in favour of plenty of drakes, say fifteen drakes to every
twenty ducks. Most of the birds will pair, though occasionally one finds
as many as three drakes paying court to one duck, and one drake taking
away two or even three ducks.

It will generally be found, however, that if any of your ducks are
without mates, wild birds will soon come and pair with them, and this
is, of course, just what you want. I have adopted this princi