332 



DUCK. 



as ducks, and which may be said to hold pretty nearly 

 the same rank among mammalia that ducks do among 

 birds, are often kept in the same places, and reared 

 in the same offensive and unwholesome way. 



When ducks are kept in proper situations, have 

 due access to water, and are fed with proper food, 

 they are very profitable animals ; and though the 

 flavour of their flesh is peculiar, and the fat, like that 

 of all aquatic birds, is oily and indigestible, yet they 

 are far from being unwholesome. They are also 

 made more healthy than poultry, and we are inclined 

 to think that they are more prolific ; so that though 

 they are adapted only to particular situations, they 

 are birds eminently deserving the attention of country 

 people. If they have access to running streams, or 

 ponds of clean water, it is always preferable ; but the 

 common horse-pond at a farm-yard answers well 

 enough for ducks ; and as the pond itself serves many 

 useful purposes, it might not be amiss if such ponds 

 were more numerous, not only at farm -steadings, but 

 at the cottages of labourers ; as there are many little 

 animals bred in the ponds which form wholesome and 

 profitable food for the ducks, and at the same time 

 cost nothing, either in expense or in trouble. Marshes 

 and stagnant waters are objectionable in every coun- 

 try, because they poison the air for animal life, sour 

 it for vegetation, and foster the growth of plants 

 which are destructive both to the soil and to what is 

 attempted to be grown upon it ; but clear waters, on 

 the other hand, tend equally to the healthiness and 

 the fertility of the country. 



Where there are ornamental pieces of water in 

 pleasure grounds, ducks can always be introduced 

 with very pleasing effect. This is the case not only 

 with all the varieties of the common domesticated 

 duck, but with even those species which, in their 

 natural habits, are the most seaward, even with those 

 which, in the wild state, are only seasonal or occa- 

 sional visitants. These migratory ducks may not 

 only be made to reside permanently on ornamental 

 waters, but they may be tamed so as to come and be 

 fed out of the hand, and, the pochards and gannets 

 especially, are so neat in their forms, so beautiful in 

 their plumage, and so lively in their motions, that it 

 is impossible not to like them. In fact, there is per- 

 haps no race of animals which can be turned to more 

 pleasant and more profitable account than the whole 

 family of the ducks. 



But, though the ducks are thus highly interesting 

 in every point of view in which animals can be inte- 

 resting to man, they are comparatively little known, 

 and their history, as in the state of nature, is very 

 obscure. It has been but too much the custom with 

 writers on natural history that, when they have been 

 unable to point out the proper locality of any animal 

 at any season, they have invariably " sent it to Siberia." 

 put it into a sort of Arctic parchment. Thus it has 

 fared with many of the ducks ; but of those which 

 have been described as rearing their broods in the 

 inhospitable climes of the north, there are many which 

 have never been seen there. The habit of the whole 

 family in the breeding season is to be retired and 

 silent, and as all the wild ones breed in places which 

 are not easily accessible by man, we may naturally 

 suppose that they pass that season in places where 

 their presence is but little suspected. The writer of 

 this article has sometimes, when fishing on sedgy 

 streams in the uplands, hooked a mallard instead of a 

 trout, in situations where the voice of the wild duck 



had not been heard for months ; and therefore he is 

 inclined to believe that many of those species which 

 are described in the books as being only winter visit- 

 ants are resident birds, only that they pass the sum- 

 mer dispersedly and in places where they have but 

 little chance of being seen. The males are peculiarly 

 retired and silent after the pairing time, and the 

 female does not come abroad until she is able to 

 launch her young ducklings upon the waters. And 

 there is not a finer sight in the whole of living nature 

 than this first launching of the ducklings upon that 

 element of which they are in future to be so much 

 the ornaments. 



We shall now give a short enumeration of the lead- 

 ing species of these very interesting birds, beginning 

 with those which are the most landward in their 

 habits ; and without particular attention to the three 

 divisions which we mentioned in the article ANAS, 

 however, there is so regular a gradation in the whole, 

 that it is not very easy to say where the one begins 

 and the other ends. There are, however, two struc- 

 tural divisions which are not unworthy of attention, 

 as they form good indications of the habits of the 

 birds. They consist of those which have the hind 

 toe free, and those which have it webbed, and more 

 or less connected with the inner toe in front. 



The whole of the duck tribe, whether those tha* 

 are more landward, or those which are more aquati' 

 in their habits, find their food more by the sense of 

 touch than by that of sight, and the bill is a very 

 beautifully organised instrument. It is covered by a 

 sentient membrane, and the edges, which come in 

 contact, are covered with papillae, and abundantly 

 furnished with nerves, so that, when a duck dabbles 

 in the water, the feeling of the bill enables it to dis- 

 tinguish eatable substances from the sludge and 

 pebbles with which they are mixed, and it literally 

 "silts" or "palts" the matters which it catches at 

 the bottom of the shallows. 



In this character of the bill the ducks are very 

 superior both to the geese and the swans. They are 

 also much more compact in their plumage, and alto- 

 gether better fitted for the water. They are also 

 gayer in their colours, and in many of the specie?, 

 the males especially, are very beautiful. One exter- 

 nal character which distinguishes the greater number 

 of the ducks from all other birds, is a spot on the 

 secondary quills of the wings. This spot is always 

 different in colour from the surrounding parts, and it 

 generally is glazed with rich metallic reflections, on 

 which account it is designated the "speculum" and 

 the " beauty spot." 



We shall now notice the leading species, beginning 

 with those which have the hind toe plain, or without 

 any membrane or web ; these also have the legs 

 articulated more forward, the tarsi larger and rounder, 

 the toes shorter, and the whole foot more adapted 

 for walking ; they also have the wings larger, and, as 

 one would say, more aerial in their structure. It 

 does not follow from this that they are better flyer?, 

 for some of the diving ducks are very alert on the 

 wing after they have gained their height, but the 

 feathering of the wings in the landward ducks is 

 much less compact than in the diving ones. The 

 latter use the wings as a fin or paddle in making their 

 way under water ; and to adapt it for this purpose, 

 there is a very beautiful compactness in the feathers 

 upon both sides of the wings. The wings, and, 

 generally speaking, the whole plumage of these birds, 



