DUCK. 



331 



DUCK Anas. A genus or rather family of \vob- 

 footed birds, whose habits are, generally speaking, 

 aquatic, though some of them are more on the land, 

 and others more exclusively on the water. For their 



relations to the rest of the feathered race, we 

 must refer the reader to the article BIRD, and some 

 of the particulars of their generic character will be 

 found in the article ANAS, so that all we are required 

 to do in the present article is to notice the habits and 

 lending characters of the more remarkable species. 

 If we take the family of Lrtmclliroslral, or flat-billed 

 birds, in its largest extent, it includes three groups, 

 which have all many characters in common, though 

 they have at the same time sufficient distinctions in 

 appearance, structure, and habit, to warrant their 

 being classed separately ; and indeed the genus or 

 group which we are now considering admits of sub- 

 division into sections or subgenera, and perhaps into 

 different genera. It is not, however, our object to 

 enter into any of the niceties of system, which are 

 usually uninteresting and unprofitable to genera! 

 readers, very nearly in proportion to the trouble which 

 they cost those writers to whom system is of more 

 importance than knowledge ; and thus we shall notice 

 them, as far as possible, under their common English 

 names. The greater divisions of the flat-billed family 

 may be said to be three geese, swans, and ducks, 

 the first of these we shall notice under the article 

 GOOSE, and the second under the article SWAN, so 

 that in the meantime we shall have to notice only the 

 DUCKS properly so called. We may. however, men- 

 tion, as introductory to the first division which pre- 

 sents itself to us in the alphabetical order, that there 

 is a regular gradation in those three branches of this 

 extensive and important family of birds. The geese 

 are the least aquatic of the whole ; and in the finding of 

 their food they are birds of the bank and the meadow, 

 rather than of the stream and the lake ; and though 

 the name goose is properly applied to some of the 

 species which are marine or inhabit the sea, yet there 

 is no sea bird to which the term can with strict pro- 

 priety be applied. The geese are the most exclusively 

 vegetable in their feeding of the whole race, and they 

 very rarely eat any animal substance, neither are 

 they seed-eating birds, for their principal food is 

 grass or the green leaves of vegetables, especially 

 such as grow near the waters. The swans are much 

 more aquatic in their general habits, and seldom seek 

 their food upon the land, or extend their journeys far 

 from the water. They are, however, birds of the 

 fresh water only, and though they are excellent swim- 

 mers they find their food either in the floating sub- 

 stances which are found in rivers and ponds, or in 

 the roots of aquatic plants. They are indeed chiefly 

 river birds, and prefer running waters to stagnant 

 lakes and ponds, although they can live on the latter. 

 The natural habit of both these divisions of the family 

 is migratory, especially in the more tropical and the 

 more" polar parts of the world. This is easily ac- 

 counted for, from the simple fact of their being aquatic 

 birds ; for during the dry season the tropical waters 

 are entirely gone, and during the winter the polar 

 waters are sealed up by the frosts, and therefore un- 

 available for any kind of bird. This holds more espe- 

 cially with geese and swans, which are birds of the 

 fresh or land waters, than with ducks, many of which 

 are birds of the sea, or at least of the shores of the 

 great collections of salt water. That this should be 

 the case will readily appear when we consider that 



the fresh waters freeze much more readily than the 

 sea does. There are several reasons why this should 

 be the case. In the first place the fresh waters, whe- 

 ther river or lake, are confined to the particular lati- 

 tudes in which they are situated ; and do not receive 

 any of the influence of more tropical latitudes, except 

 through the medium of the air and the earth. In the 

 second place those waters are generally speaking 

 much shallower than the sea. and therefore much 

 more subject to seasonal changes of temperature. 

 This circumstance is attended with very considerable 

 eifects upon the distribution of fresh water birds, and 

 is in fact one of the most effective causes in stimulat- 

 ing the migration of these animals. The fresh waters 

 are much more heated, and much more productive 

 both of animal and of vegetable life during the sum- 

 mer than the waters of the sea, and on this account 

 they attract the birds during this season ; but when 

 winter comes, the sealing up of them by the frost 

 puts an end to the supply, and such of the birds as 

 have not seaward habits are forced to make their 

 retreat to warmer climates during the winter. 



Ducks are much more numerous in their species 

 and much more diversified in their characters than 

 either of the other two divisions of the family ; and 

 taking them altogether, they are perhaps the most 

 interesting of the whole. Upon looking back to the 

 article ANAS it will be seen that ducks admit of a 

 natural division into three groups, two of which have 

 very distinctive characters, while the third, which is 

 intermediate, partakes more or less of the characters 

 of both. They are also called by different names, 

 not only in scientific classifications, but in common 

 language, though the general character duck, founded 

 upon the mallard or common wild duck, may be con- 

 sidered as typical of the whole of them. Such as are 

 domesticated are very interesting and very valuable 

 birds. They are much more intelligent, and have far 

 more expression in their appearance than any of the 

 races of poultry; and from their habits, their food, 

 and their manner of feeding, they are much less de- 

 structive. Naturally they are very indiscriminate in 

 their eating, but they cannot be kept in good condi- 

 tion or fattened so that their food may be wholesome 

 unless they have access to pure water. Ducks which 

 are kept in the streets and lanes of towns, to pick up 

 any refuse that may be there, and left to dabble in 

 impure and stagnant waters, have never a handsome 

 appearance, neither are they wholsome as human 

 food , and it is worthy of remark, as showing the con- 

 dition of an animal in all the stages of its being, that 

 the eggs of those improperly treated and unwholesome 

 ducks are as unfit for food as the birds themselves. 

 There is another mode of keeping ducks sometimes 

 resorted to, which renders their flesh even more rank 

 and unwholesome than that of those which walk the 

 streets and dabble in the kennels ; and that is a 

 practice which is but too often resorted to by those 

 butchers which kill their own meat, of keeping ducks 

 in the yards of their slaughter-houses, to feed upon 

 the offal and garbage. For this purpose they have 

 generally a small nominal pond of water in the yard, 

 but instead of water it contains a solution of blood 

 and all other animal impurities, in a state of putrefac- 

 tion, or one approaching to it ; and therefore ducks 

 which are fattened in such places are absolutely filthy, 

 and partake as much of the nature of poison as of that 

 of food. While remarking on the subject, we may as 

 well add that pigs which are as miscellaneous feeders 



