BAISIKG DUCKS. 229 



It is customary in and near Aylesbury to confine the 

 ducks in warm houses early in the season, and to induce the 

 earliest possible laying, that the young ducks may be mar- 

 keted very early in the season, and high prices secured. 

 They come to the market just at a season when game 

 and other poultry are scarce and high. Now, when the 

 Aylesburys are removed from their home surroundings, 

 and, as in this country, are treated like other kinds of 

 ducks, they retain this tendency to lay, and hatch a 

 brood early in mid-winter, only for the first generation 

 from importation, even then to a less degree than the 

 imported birds show it. The tendency to lay very early 

 would no doubt be maintained if it were encouraged as 

 it is at home. In regard to the care of ducks, it is well 

 to observe that the more a variety is changed by domes- 

 tication, the more attention they need, and usually the 

 more profit they yield. Many common ducks lay a 

 clutch of perhaps 20 small eggs; in sitting, cover half or 

 more, and hatch them out, while the Aylesbury Duck 

 will lay 60 eggs or more, but until she begins to show a 

 tendency to sit, usually a week or ten days before she 

 sits, she makes a sort of nest, and there she deposits her 

 eggs. The only way to secure all the eggs is to shut up 

 the ducks at night. They will usually lay an egg apiece 

 between dawn and eight o'clock; and as soon as each has 

 laid, all maybe let out. They all march straight for the 

 water; and if let out too soon, some eggs will be almost 

 surely found in the bottom of the pond. Ducks are 

 voracious and almost omnivorous feeders; they are fond 

 of grass and water plants, water-cress especially, and are 

 diligent foragers for snails and the little shell-fish of 

 fresh-water streams, ponds, and swamps; and, besides, on 

 dry land they are indefatigable insect-hunters, young 

 ducks being often very useful in a vegetable garden, 

 where they gather aud destroy many plant-pests. 



A pair of Aylesbury Ducks fit for exhibition ought 



