AYLESBURY DUCKS. 



559 



boiled greaves chopped up, horse-flesh, or any 

 wholesome butcher's refuse, or a portion of fresh- 

 cut bone — any of these will suffice ; but, as 

 already explained, a fair proportion of such food 

 is absolutely necessary for rearing fine or healthy 

 ducklings. At a month old the five or six daily 

 feeds may come down to four, and at six or 

 seven weeks to three, leaving, however, in their 

 sleeping place, but not near their bed, some 

 grain in a shallow pan of water. They will 

 thrive just as well (if not better) hatched in an 

 incubator and reared in a brooder ; but food 

 must on no account ever be given in the inner 

 chamber, which must be kept clean and dry. 



A few ducklings may be reared even for 

 exhibition in quite a small space, if it includes 

 an exercise yard, and a small pond. The best 

 time for hatching exhibition stock is March or 

 April. Those which promise best, either for 

 this purpose or as breeding stock, should be 

 picked out when a few weeks old, kept speci- 

 ally clean and dry at night, and given all the 

 exercise possible, feeding mainly for frame, with 

 nitrogenous food, and after three weeks old allow- 

 ing them to dabble in a large tin of water 

 kept indoors, if the pond outside is too cold 

 The remainder, which are only destined for 

 table, may be kept penned up, and forced on 

 with more fattening diet, on the same principles 

 as described presently in connection with larger 

 undertakings. Care must be taken to keep all 

 out of the hot sun, which produces in ducklings 

 a kind of sunstroke or heat apoplexy, and kills 

 many if exposed to it, besides spoiling the bill 

 in the case of Aylesburys. They also catch 

 cold and cramp readily, if left out in a shower 

 of rain before they are fledged, or allowed in 

 cold water too early. In nature, the duck takes 

 them to water at once, and the skin at once 

 gets hardened to it : but with a hen or incubator, 

 and at earlier seasons, this is not so, and they 

 get chilled. 



The domestic varieties of ducks are much 

 more numerous than in 1861, when Mrs. Fer- 

 gusson Blair wrote in The Hemvife that " there 



is not a great variety in our domestic 

 Aylesbury ducks ; only three distinct exhibition 

 Ducks. breeds exist, viz. the Aylesbury, 



Rouen, and Buenos Ayres or East 

 Indian." Though, curiously enough, the last- 

 named has now practically disappeared, being re- 

 placed by the Cayuga, the list now would be twice 

 as long ; but the first place, at least in England, 

 must still be given to the Aylesbury breed, 

 named from the county town of Bucks, which 

 has for generations been the chief, and is still 

 the largest centre of the duck-rearing industry, 



and where scarcely any other kind of duck is 

 thought of in connection with it. 



The Aylesbury duck is long in the body, 

 which is carried horizontally, the legs appearing 

 almost in the middle. The neck is fine and 

 rather long, with a somewhat swan-like carriage, 

 the head a little snaky, with the bill long and 

 coming out straight like a woodcock's. The 

 most obvious characteristics to catch the eye 

 are the pure and spotless white of the plumage, 

 entirely free from the least yellow, which may 

 contaminate Pekin-crossed birds, and the delicate 

 colour of the bill, which should be a pale soft 

 pink, " like that of a lady's finger-nail." This 

 colour is partly the result of long and careful 

 breeding ; but there appears little doubt that 

 it is partly due also to constant scouring in a 

 fine shelly gravel found throughout the Vale of 

 Aylesbury about the streams and ponds, of 

 which the ducks are very fond ; and it is only 

 found in perfection when the birds are kept 

 out of much sun, and away from ferruginous 

 soil or foul water, which injures the colour 

 greatly. Left to wander at pleasure in other 

 localities, the progeny of the best stock will often 

 turn yellow in the bill, but it is found that this 

 can be prevented by care, and by placing in 

 their troughs abundance of fine white sharp 

 gravel. The legs are bright orange. The drake 

 differs in no respect from the duck, e.xcept in 

 being rather larger, and having two or three 

 curled feathers in his tail ; and at an early age 

 it is difficult to distinguish the sexes, as these 

 male feathers do not develop till the first moult. 

 As the young ones grow to the age of six or 

 eight weeks, however, the voice of the two sexes 

 will be found to differ, the ducks giving a dis- 

 tinct ''quack," whilst the note of the drake is 

 not a quack at all, but much fainter, and husky 

 in character. 



In one respect the Aylesbury duck has 

 somewhat changed during recent years. As 

 we remember it in i860, and for some years 

 afterwards, it was not what duck-breeders term 

 "keeled" underneath the body. By degrees 

 this character was more and more cultivated, 

 from a desire to increase the massive look of 

 the birds, and at the present day the Standard 

 describes and requires keel — the term is self- 

 e.xplanatory — in exhibition birds. To a certain 

 moderate extent, while confined to a fairly deep 

 breast-bone, the point is useful ; but the present 

 exaggerated keel is disliked by market dealers, 

 and has had something to do with a partial dis- 

 placement of Aylesbury ducks by Pekins in the 

 London market. The average weight of good 

 stock is about 7 lbs. for drakes and 6 lbs. for 

 ducks, in ordinary condition at twelve months 



