Migration of Ducks
The wonders of migration of the duck tribe have been brought further into the open by the experiences of the ringing station at Orielton Decoy. Even peasants in remote countries are becoming interested, and report at once when a ringed bird is discovered. Rings have been recovered, for example, from country places in Russia, Lapland arid Italy. Perhaps the most remarkable is the report of a ringed teal from Petrikovo in the Ukraine. Even fictional literature is attracted by the new discoveries in migration. For example, that little masterpiece of war-time fiction, The Snow Goose, is founded on a curious item of migration—and incidentally it has been republished with beautiful illustrations by that excellent naturalist Peter Scott. Geese were the very first birds to be ringed on the American continent—by Jack Miner, in Ontario—and were perhaps the most remarkable example of mass migration recorded in Martin Duncan's Wonders of Migration, that reported the arrival of literally tens of thousands of geese on the Forth of Tay. A pack, estimated at 2,000 grey-lags, was a small detail in the multitude which extended for miles. The international work at the Orielton Decoy Ringing Station is so remarkable that I venture a second time to urge its more general support. The secretary is Miss Barclay Smith, the Zoo, Regent's Park.
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