292 



DOMESTIC DUCKS. 



Chap. VIII. 



the necessity of keeping clucks in netted enclosures like other 

 wild fowl, so that at this period there was danger of their 

 flying away. Moreover, the plan recommended by Columella 

 to those who wish to increase their stock of ducks, namely, 

 to collect the eggs of the wild bird and to place them under 

 a hen, shows, as Mr. Dixon remarks, "that the duck had 

 not at this time become a naturalized and prolific inmate of 

 the Roman poultry-yard." The origin of the domestic duck 

 from the wild species is recognised in nearly every language 

 of Europe, as Aldrovandi long ago remarked, by the same 

 name being applied to both. The wild duck has a wide 

 range from the Himalayas to North America. It crosses 

 readily with the domestic bird, and the crossed offspring are 

 perfectly fertile. 



Both in North America and Europe the wild duck has been 

 found easy to tame and breed. In Sweden this experiment 

 was carefully tried by Tiburtius ;• he succeeded in rearing 

 wild ducks for three generations, but, though they were 

 treated like common ducks, they did not vary even in a 

 single feather. The young birds suffered from being allowed 

 to swim about in cold water, 8 as is known to be the case, 

 though the fact is a strange one, with the young of the 

 common domestic duck. An accurate and well-known ob- 

 server in England 9 has described in detail his often repeated 

 and successful exj>eriments in domesticating the wild duck. 

 Young birds are easily reared from eggs hatched under a 

 bantam ; but to succeed it is indispensable not to place the 

 eggs of both the wild and tame duck under the same hen, 

 for in this case " the young wild ducks die off, leaving their 

 more hardy brethren in undisturbed possession of their foster- 

 mother's care. The difference of habit at the onset in the 



and torn. xxi. p. 55. Rev. E. S. 

 Dixon, 'Ornamental Poultry,' p. 118. 

 Tame ducks were not known in Aris- 

 totle's time, as remarked by Volz, in 

 his ' Beitr'age zur Kulturgeschiohte,' 

 1852, s. 78. 



8 I quote this account from ' Die 

 Enten- und Schwanenzucht,' Ulm, 

 1828, s. 143. See Audubon's ' Ornitho- 

 logical Biography,' vol. iii. p. 168, on 



the taming of ducks on the Mississippi. 

 For the same fact in Eno-land, see Mr. 

 Waterton in Loudon's Mag. of Nat. 

 Hist.,' vol. viii. 1835, p. 542 ; and 

 Mr. St. John, ' Wild Sports and JS T at. 

 Hist, of the Highlands,' 1846, p. 129. 

 9 Mr. E. Hewitt, in ' Journal of 

 Horticulture,' 1862, p. 773; and 

 1863, p. 39. 



