Pierre J. Dubois, 

 French soldier 



Manuel 



Dubois, PIERRE JOSEPH Louis 

 ALFRED (b. 1852). French soldier. 

 Born at Sedan, Nov. 21, 1852, he 

 joined the 

 French army 

 as a lieutenant 

 of the 24th 

 Dragoon regi- 

 ment in Oct.,v 

 1874. He saw 

 active service 

 in Algeria and 

 Tunisia(1882), 

 and again in 

 Algeria, 1885- 

 86. Promoted 

 brigadier-general in March, 1905, he 

 was made director of cavalry under 

 the minister of war in the following 

 Aug. In April, 1913, he was ap- 

 pointed commander of the 9th Army 

 Corps, and when the Great War 

 broke out this corps, forming part 

 of the Second Army, under Castel- 

 nau, was heavily engaged in the 

 region of Nancy, Aug.-Sept , 1914. 

 Later the corps formed part of 

 the army of Belgium, incessantly 

 fighting from Oct. 21 to Nov. 13, 

 1914. Dubois was made G.C-M.G. 

 in Dec., 1914. He was put at the 

 head of the French Sixth Army 

 in 1915, and in 1916 was in com- 

 mand at Verdun. He was placed 

 in the reserve in 1917, after holding 

 various commands. 



Dubovka. Town of Russia in 

 the govt. of Saratov It stands on 

 the right bank of the Volga, 32 m. 

 N.N.E. of Tsaritsyn. There are 

 tanneries and mustard factories, 

 and considerable trade is done in 

 salt. Dubovka, formerly the re- 

 sidence of the hetman of the Volga 

 Cossacks, has lost its importance 

 since the construction of the Volga- 

 Don Rly. Pop. 17,000. ' 



Dubuque. City of Iowa, U.S.A., 

 the co. seat of Dubuque co. It 

 stands on the Mississippi river, 

 168 m. W.N.W. of Chicago, and is 

 served by the Chicago Great Wes- 

 tern and other rlys. An important 

 river port and rly. centre, it com- 

 municates with the E. bank of the 

 river by three bridges. Its build- 

 ings include the Government office, 

 the free library, several hospitals, 

 and a number of colleges and 

 schools, the chief being S. Joseph's 

 College, Wartburg Seminary, and 

 the state institute of science and 

 arts. Situated in an important 

 coal, zinc, and iron mining dis- 

 trict, it has rly. workshops, flour 

 and lumber mills, foundries, pork- 

 packing establishments, and boot 

 and shoe factories. First settled in 

 1788 by J. Dubuque, in whose 

 memory a monument has been 

 erected, Dubuque was founded in 

 1833 and incorporated in 1837, its 

 city charter being granted three 

 years later. Pop. 40,100 



Ducange, CHARLES DU FRESNE, 

 SIEUR (1010-88). French scholar. 

 Born at Amiens, Dec. 18, 1610, and 

 educated by the Jesuits, Ducange 

 became a lawyer. He passed most 

 of his life in study in Amiens and 

 Paris, where he died Oct. 23, 

 1688. He edited the works of 

 several French and Byzantine 

 historians, Joinville among them, 

 but his great work is his Latin 

 glossary, 1678, which is really a 

 compendious dictionary of medie- 

 val Latin. It has been frequently 

 revised and enlarged, notably by 

 the Benedictines, 1733-36, and the 

 last edition was published at Niort, 

 1883-87. Ducange compiled a 

 Greek Glossary on similar lines 

 published in 1688. 



Ducat. Name of a coin, generally 

 of gold, which circulated widely on 

 the Continent in medieval times ; 

 value, 9s. 4d. It was first coined 

 in silver, by Roger II of Sicily, 

 1140. The gold ducat of Florence, 

 coined in 1252, was followed by 

 that of Venice, 1283. The name 

 is derived from the word ducatus 

 on Roger's money, referring to his 

 duchy of Apulia. From Italy the 

 coin and the name went to Hun- 

 gary, Bohemia, Austria, and Ger- 

 many. Its use ultimately spread 

 to Russia, Spain ; Denmark, and 

 Holland ; to Hanover, as late as 

 George Ill's reign, and in 1887 to 

 England, as the name of a trial 

 decimal gold coin, worth 100 pence. 

 See Sequin. 



Duccio di Buoninsegna (c. 

 1260-1340). Sienese painter. The 

 only extant work indisputably by 

 this painter is the altar-piece for 

 the high altar at Siena cathedral, 

 now in the cathedral museum, re- 

 presenting the Virgin and Child 

 surrounded by angels and saints. 

 Duccio was the first Sienese painter 

 to abandon the Byzantine tradition. 



Ducie, EARL OF. British title 

 borne since 1837 by the family of 

 Moreton. The family is descended 

 from Henry Ducie of London. His 

 son, Sir Robert Ducie, lord mayor 

 of London, left a large fortune 

 which came eventually to his 

 grand-daughter Elizabeth, the wife 

 of Edward Moreton. Their son 

 Matthew was, in 1720, made Lord 

 Ducie, baron of Moreton. This 

 title died out in 1770, but in 1763 

 another barony of Ducie had been 

 created, which passed to Thomas 

 Reynolds, a nephew of Lord Ducie. 

 He took the name of Moreton, and 

 his grandson Thomas was made an 

 earl in 1837. Henry John, the 3rd 

 earl (1827-1921), succeeded to the 

 title in 1853. His brother Berkeley 

 Basil (1834-1924) was the 4th earl. 

 The family estates are mainly in 

 Gloucestershire. The earl's eldest 

 son is known as Lord Moreton. 



DUCK 



Duck (Mid. E. dukanf Ger. 

 lauchen, to dive). Name of the 

 largest group of birds of the order 

 Anseres (of the family Anatidae), 

 which includes swans, geese, and 

 ducks. There are over 40 genera 

 of ducks and nearly 200 species. 

 They are distinguished by short 

 legs, webbed feet, and a depressed 

 and expanded beak. All the species 

 are more or less aquatic, and most 

 are powerful flyers. They are 

 mainly herbivorous, with the excep- 

 tion of the merganser, which lives 

 on fish, but frogs and worms are 

 also readily eaten. The plumage 

 is dense and compact, so that the 

 water readily runs off it, a property 

 augmented by the free use of the oil 

 gland. As a rule, the male, or drake, 

 has more showy plumage than the 

 female, for which the term duck is 

 commonly reserved. All the species 

 lay uniformly coloured eggs, and 

 the young are able to swim^shortly 

 after being hatched. 



Ducks are found all over the 

 world, but are most numerous in 

 the northern regions. They asso- 

 ciate in flocks, and the majority 

 migrate further N. for the nesting 

 season. On the wing the flock 

 always assumes a wedge-shaped 

 lormation, which probably helps to 

 overcome the resistance of the air. 



The numerous breeds of domes- 

 ticated ducks are believed to have 

 descended from the mallard, or wild 

 duck, which breeds quite freely in 

 captivity. All domesticated ducks 

 interbreed with the wild duck, and 

 their offspring is fertile, which goes 

 to prove that the species is iden- 

 tical. The polygamous habits of the 

 domesticated duck, the wild duck 

 being monogamous, are probably 

 merely the result of living under 

 non-natural conditions. Domesti- 

 cated ducks may be classed as orna- 

 mental, and those intended for the 

 table. The ornamental varieties 

 are mainly different species of 

 British and foreign wild ducks 

 maintained in a half-tame state 

 on lakes and in parks. 



Less than a dozen European 

 breeds can be regarded as of prac- 

 tical utility for the table or for 

 supplying eggs. Of these the 

 Aylesbury is by far the most es- 

 teemed and most commonly bred 

 variety in Great Britain. Its 

 plumage is pure white, and it 

 carries its boat-shaped body almost 

 level with the ground. As it 

 matures rapidly and attains a 

 weight of from 8 Ib. to 10 lb., it is 

 much in demand for table pur- 

 poses. The Rouen, for which 

 France is famous, is simply a cul- 

 tivated mallard. In plumage 

 almost identical with the wild bird, 

 it often attains a weight of 11 lb , 

 and its flesh is much superior to 



