DUCKS. 4'29 



or unsettled. The best food for the goslings, is barley or oat, 

 or boiled Indian-meal and bread. Milk is also good for 

 them. They require green food, and are fond of lettuce, 

 young clover, and fresh tender grass, and after a few weeks, 

 if they have a free range on this, they will forage for them- 

 selves. Geese are not a profitable bird to raise, unless in 

 places where they can procure their own subsistence, or at 

 least during the greater part of the year. This they are ena- 

 bled to do, whenever there are extensive commons of unpas- 

 tured lands, or when there are streams or ponds, lakes or 

 marshes with shoal sedgy banks. In these, they will live 

 and fatten throughout the year, if unobstructed by ice. 



They may be fattened on all kinds of grain and edible 

 roots, but it is more economical to give them their food 

 cooked. The well-fattened gosling affords one of the most 

 savory dishes for the table. Geese live to a great age. 

 They have been known to exceed 100 years. When allowed 

 a free range on good food and clean water, they will seldom 

 get diseased. When well fed, they yield nearly a pound of 

 good feathers in a season, at three or four pluckings, and the 

 largest varieties even exceed this. 



DUCKS 



Are more hardy and independent of attention than the 

 goose, and they arc generally the most profitable. They are 

 omnivorous, and greedily devour every thing which will 

 atlbrd them nourishment, though they seldom forage on the 

 grasses like the goose, when they can procure other food. 

 They are peculiarly carniverous, and devour all kinds of meat, 

 putrid or fresh ; and are especially fond of fish, and such 

 insects, worms, &c., as they can find imbedded in the mud 

 or elsewhere. They will often distend their crop with young 

 frogs, almost to the ordinary size of their bodies. Their 

 indiscriminate appetites often render them unfit for the table, 

 unless fattened out of the reach of garbage and offensive 

 matters. An English admiral used to resort to well-fattened 

 rats for his fresh meat, when at sea, and justified his taste by 

 saying, they were more cleanly feeders than ducks, which were, 

 general favorites. 



THE VARIETIES of ducks are almost innumerable. Main 

 describes 31, and some naturalists number over 100. The 

 most profitable for domestic use, is undoubtedly the common 

 black duck. They lay profusely in the spring, when well 

 fed, often producing 40 or 50 eggs, and sometimes a greater 



