Chap. VIII. EXTERNAL DIFFERENCES. 293 



newly-hatched ducklings almost entails such a result to a 

 certainty." The wild ducklings were from the first quite 

 tame towards those who took care of them as long as they 

 wore the same clothes, and likewise to the dogs and cats of 

 the house. They would even snap with their beaks at the 

 dogs, and drive them away from any spot which they coveted. 

 But they were much alarmed at strange men and dogs. 

 Differently from what occurred in Sweden, Mr. Hewitt found 

 that his young birds always changed and deteriorated in 

 character in the course of two or three generations ; not- 

 withstanding that great care was taken to prevent their 

 crossing with tame ducks. After the third generation his 

 birds lost the elegant carriage of the wild species, and began 

 to acquire the gait of the common duck. They increased in 

 size in each generation, and their legs became less fine. The 

 white collar round the neck of the mallard became broader 

 and less regular, and some of the longer primary wing-feathers 

 became more or less white. When this occurred, Mr. Hewitt 

 destroyed nearly the whole of his stock and procured fresh 

 eggs from wild nests ; so that he never bred the same family 

 for more than five or six generations. His birds continued 

 to pair together, and never became polygamous like the 

 common domestic duck. I have given these details, because 

 no other case, as far as I know, has been so carefully re- 

 corded by a competent observer of the progress of change 

 in wild birds reared for several generations in a domestic 

 condition. 



From these considerations there can hardly be a doubt that 

 the wild duck is the parent of the common domestic kind ; 

 nor need we look to other species for the parentage of the 

 more distinct breeds, namely, Penguin, Call, Hook-billed, 

 Tufted, and Labrador ducks. I will not repeat the arguments 

 used in the previous chapters on the improbability of man 

 having in ancient times domesticated several species since 

 become unknown or extinct, though ducks are not readily 

 exterminated in the wild state; — on some of the supposed 

 parent-species having had abnormal characters in comparison 

 with all the other species of the genus, as with Hook-billed 

 and Penguin ducks ; — on all the breeds, as far as is known 



