1044 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



contrary ; as there are instances of the duck turning out with her bill those eggs which 

 w ere not of her natural color. 



6740. During incubation, the duck requires a secret and safe place, rather than any 

 attendance, and will, at nature's call, cover her eggs, and seek her food, and the refreshment 

 of the waters. On hatching, there is not often a necessity for taking away any of the 

 brood, barring accidents ; and having hatched, let the duck retain her young upon the 

 nest her own time. On her moving with her brood, prepare a coop upon the short 

 grass, if the weather be fine, or under a shelter, if otherwise : a wide and flat dish of 

 water, often to be renewed, standing at hand ; barley, or any meal, the first food. In 

 rainy weather particularly, it is useful to clip the tails of the ducklings, and the sur- 

 rounding down beneath, since they are else apt to draggle and weaken themselves. The 

 duck should be cooped at a distance from any other. The period of her confinement to 

 the coop, depends on the weather and the strength of the ducklings. A fortnight seems 

 the longest time necessary ; and they may be sometimes permitted to enjoy the pond at 

 the end of a week, but not for too great a length at once, least of all in cold wet weather, 

 which will affect, and cause them to scour and appear rough and draggled. In such 

 case they must be kept within a while, and have an allowance of bean or pea-meal mixed 

 with their ordinary food. The meal of buck-wheat and the former is then proper. The 

 straw beneath the duck should be often renewed, that the brood may have a dry and 

 comfortable bed; and the mother herself be well fed with solid corn, without an ample, 

 allowance of which, ducks are not to be reared or kept in perfection, although they 

 gather so much abroad. 



6741. Buck eggs are of ten hatched by hens, when ducks are more in request than 

 chickens ; also as ducks, in unfavorable situations, are the more easy to rear, as more 

 hardy ; and the plan has no objection in a confined place, and with a small stock, without 

 the advantage of a pond ; but the hen is much distressed, as is sufficiently visible, and, in 

 fact, injured, by the anxiety she suffers in witnessing the supposed perils of her children 

 venturing upon the water. 



6742. Ducks are fattened, either in confinement, with plenty of food and water, or full 

 as well restricted to a pond, with access to as much solid food as they will eat ; which 

 last method is preferable. They fatten speedily, in this mode, mixing their hard meat 

 with such a variety abroad as is natural to them, more particularly, if already in good 

 case ; and there is no check or impediment to thrift from pining, but every mouthful tells 

 and weighs its due weight. A dish of mixed food is preferable to white corn, and 

 may remain on the bank, or rather in a shed, for the ducks. Barley, in any form, should 

 never be used to fatten ducks or geese, since it renders their flesh loose, woolly, and 

 insipid, and deprives it of that high savory flavor of brown meat, which is its valuable 

 distinction ; in a word, rendering it chickeny, not unlike in flavor the flesh of ordinary 

 and yellow-legged fowls. Oats, whole or bruised, are the standard fattening material for 

 ducks and geese, to which may be added pea-meal, as it may be required. The house- 

 wash is profitable to mix up their food, under confinement ; but it is obvious, whilst they 

 have the benefit of what the pond affords, they can be in no want of loose food. Acorns 

 in season, are much affected by ducks which have a range ; and they will thrive so much 

 on that provision, that the quantity of fat will be inconvenient, both in cooking, and upon 

 the table. Ducks so fed, are certainly inferior in delicacy, but the flesh eats high, and is 

 far from disagreeable. Fed on butcher's oflTal, the flesh resembles wild fowl in flavor, 

 with, however, considerable inferiority. OfFal-fed duck's flesh does not emit the abomin- 

 able stench which issues from oflTal-fed pork. When live ducks are plucked, only a small 

 quantity of down and feathers should be taken from each wing. 



6743. Decoys for wild ducks. Wild ducks, and other aquatic birds, are frequently taken 

 by the device termed a decoy, which, in the low parts of Essex, and some other marshy 

 districts, may be considered as connected with husbandry. A decoy is a canal or ditch, 

 provincially pipe, of water {fig. 723.), with a grassy sloping margin (1) at its junction 

 with a river or larger piece of water (8), to invite aquatic fowls to sit on and dress their 

 plumage ; but in other parts, covered with rushes and aquatic plants for concealment. 

 Along the canal of the decoy are placed reed fences (2, 2), to conceal the decoy-man and 

 his dogs from the sight of the ducks. There is an opening in this fence (3), where the 

 decoy-man first shows himself to the birds to force them to take the water; and having 

 taken it, the dog drives them up the canal, the man looking through the fence at 

 different places (4, 5, 6) to frighten them forward. At the end of the canal is a tunnel 

 net (7;, where tne birds are finally taken. In operating with this trap, as the wild duck 

 is a very shy bird, and delights in retirement, the first step is to endeavor to make the 

 given water a peaceful asylum, by suffering the ducks to rest on it undisturbed. 

 The same love of concealment leads them to be partial to waters whose margins 

 abound with underwood and aquatic plants ; hence, if the given water is not already 

 furnished with these appendages, they must be provided ; for it is not retirement 

 alone which leads them into these recesses, but a search after food also. At certain 



