AQUATIC FOWL. 161 



The male bird readily crosses on our common duck, and produces 

 a hybrid variety. It is said the female will again breed with the 

 common duck a circumstance I am not cognizant of, although 

 I have kept many of them. The musk drake is an unpleasant 

 fowl, in a poultry- yard, as they frequently injure both ducks and 

 poultry, and are bad water-fowl, preferring small puddles to pure 

 ponds or streams. They occasionally take flight, like pigeons, 

 and alight on any exalted situation, house, wall, or tree ; and are 

 always perchers at roost. They are dirty and voracious feeders. 

 The eggs are much like our common sort ; the time of incubation 

 is five weeks ; the young are slow in coming to maturity, and are 

 said to be delicious, if dressed for the table before the first moult, 

 after which they are tough, high-flavoured, and coarse. 



The Domestic Duck will find its own food for the greater part of 

 the year, if it have sufficient scope of water to furnish it with aquatic 

 plants ; or, if permitted to ramble through a plantation, the beech- 

 mast and acorns furnish it with abundance of nutrition so much 

 so, as to be always ready for table ; meadows and pasture grounds 

 afford it insectiverous matter, and if an occasional feed of boiled 

 potatoes, with a little grain, be given, it is sure to flourish. One 

 drake is sufficient for five or six ducks. They begin to lay in 

 February, when they require additional food. They usually lay 

 either at night, or early in the morning a circumstance that should 

 be attended to, as, if permitted to ramble away, when about to lay, 

 they frequently drop their eggs in the water ; but, if confined a 

 few times, they evince an inclination to lay in the same place. 

 The time of incubation is thirty days ; after which the young 

 follow the parent, and should be kept from the water for a couple 

 of days. Soft food agrees best with them ; barley-meal and water, 

 mixed thin, or chopped egg and oatmeal, is a favourite food. It 

 is necessary to preserve the young from the rapacity of the raven, 

 hooded-crow, and magpie, which are always on the watch for them. 

 The flesh of the tame duck is more easily digested than that of 

 the goose, and the flesh of the wild duck still more so than that of 

 the tame. 



THE SHOVELLER, 



Is a very beautiful species of duck, and the flesh of exquisite 

 flavour. It is smaller than the Mallard, and not very abundant 

 in Britain ; but frequently shot or taken in the decoys, in both 

 England, Ireland, and Scotland, where it occasionally breeds, 

 but is much more a winter visitor. It is very abundant in Hoi- 



