POULTEY. 175 



These lines give us a charming glimpse of their habits, in a 

 nutshell, and may furnish a hint as to their proper manage- 

 ment when domesticated. There is no family we believe 

 v/hich so largely preserve their wild instincts in captivity. A 

 flock of wild ducks feeding or swimming by the sea-shore, if 

 viewed attentively through a good telescope, will be found to 

 go through precisely the same motions as their domestic 

 brethren in the most contracted pond or running stream ; the 

 same plunging motion of the head and neck, and the same 

 habit of every now and then raising the body at right-angles 

 with the water and fluttering their wings. The presence of 

 ducks therefore in a barn or farm yard seems to furnish a cer- 

 tain breezy suggestion of far-off" Avilds and romantic surround- 

 ings, which is of itself a recommendation to any one who has 

 a love for the untrodden mysteries of nature's most remote 

 fastnesses. 



We have alluded to the close similarity of the domestic to 

 the wild varieties. "VVe have a singular proof of this in an 

 experience we once had with a black Cayuga duck. This 

 breed is supposed (the poultry-books say) to be a cross be- 

 tween the black duck and some other wild variety. This is 

 no doubt true, for there is no domestic duck which is so quick 

 and agile in its movements ; but the authorities say that one 

 of their recommendations is that a fence a foot or two high 

 will keep them in, as it will no other duck, and here our ex- 

 perience proves directly the contrary. On our return home, 

 after an absence of two or three months, we were sorry to 

 find that, by some unexplained casualty, one of our black 

 Cayugas had lost the use of one of its legs, which upon exam- 

 ination proved to have been badly broken and twisted. As 

 the parts had long since knit together it was too late to 

 remedy it. The poor duck was totally unable to walk, and 

 could not stand except for a second or two on one leg. 



Our barn-yard was surrounded by a high picket-fence, at 

 least ten feet high, and strange to say, this duck had attained 

 the facility of flying over it as easily as a pigeon. On one or 

 two occasions she was brought back to us from a neighbor's 

 barn-yard which was separated from ours by at least an eighth 

 of a mile, and surrounded by very high hemlocks and cedars ; 

 to reach it she must have flown at least fifty feet high. 



