The sun., 1906-12-31
ADAMLESS EDEN IN The PARK
THE DUCKS ~ 1T FOUGHT HARD
FOR THE FEW BRAKES.

Then Came q Flock OF Female Mallards and
the Trouble Grew-FinalIy n Dozen
Extra brakes Were Corrailed and Now
There IL Peace I'm tho Lake Colony.
There has been trouble In the widows
Settlement" az it is called. which until a
few days ago was run by the city on the
upper arm OF the lake in Central Park
somewhat on the lines OF the Martha Wash
ington.
Here are the winter quarters Of the water
fowl, the swans, geese and ducks. The
swans and geese cut no figure in the do
mestic troubles, for each Juliet had her
Romeo, but with the ducks it was different
story There were about l40 OF these
and Of this number only a dozen were
brakes. The disproportion OF the sexes
didn't matter in the summer when the
fowl were spread over the whole lake and
passed most Of the day in swimming after
the boats to pick up the food thrown to
them. Early in the summer Director
Smith purchased flock Of big white domes-
tic ducks, the like of which had never be-
fore been in the park. They attracted
much attention as they went swimming
in a group over the lake.
There we're thirty-six OF them and all
were females. 1t was thought a good
thing to have them all OF one sex. The
park authorities didn't suspect at the time
that they we're laying up store Of trouble
by excluding the brakes.
Everything went along smoothly until
they were put into winter quarters, where
space is limited. The old keeper who has
charge Of these quarters says that the war
fare that has been going on in his bailiwiCk
since was just fight for husband. There
have been single combats and at times
a battle royal between a dozen or more.
The feathers we're made TO fly and OCCASION
ally a dead duck would be found. But in
all the fights none of the brakes took any
part. The social condition of the colony
was bad enough when an unexpected event
occurred last week to add To the dissension.
A flock Of wild ducks that had fingered
In northern waters beyond their time found
the cold spell early in the week too much for
their comfort and took fight to the sotth-
ward. In passing over the city they caught
sight Of the bunch of swans, geese and
ducks enjoying the winter ON the upper
part OF the lake. 1t seemed to the migrants
that il must be a warm spot down there, SO
the flock just dropped down To investigate.
They discovered that il was warmer than
the open waters of the Sound, or wherever
they came from, and what was more inn
DOrtant there was an 9DunuanCe OF Cracheu
corn and other food. There were just
twenty of the strangers, the keeper counted.
They were a bit shy about mixing in with
the others at first but soon became 80
ciable when they saw that there was no at
tempt 10 modest them. The keeper observed
that the newcomers were mallsrds and he
looked them over to see how many of them
had the white band about the throat which
is the distinguishing badge of the drake.
brakes would have been twice welcome
in that colony, but there was not a single
white band among the strangers, so the
pleasant surplise which their coming first
caused turned TO disappointment The
husbandless mallards made matters worse
In this almost Adamless duck paradise as
soon as they got over their first shyness
The mallards are trinity built, graceful
swimmers, and il wasn't long before the
dozen brakes began to quack to them in
their pleasantest tones and quite ignored
the old timers. This was more than the
forsaken ones were willing TO tolerate and
fights became more frequent.
1t was the opinion Of the old keeper that
the newcomers tried TO get the males 10
elape after winning them away from the
old timers. 1t seemed so to him when the
mallards did lot Of quacking and then