280 FARMING FOR LADIES, [chap. sin. 



for their maintenance costs very little to those 

 who have a garden and a .field, and they 

 seek for support with little care or attend- 

 ance. Ducks may indeed be justly entitled 

 " omnivorous," for no edible substance, of 

 whatever nature, whether animal or vege- 

 table, comes amiss to them: fish, flesh, and 

 roots, frogs, tadpoles, and worms of all sorts, 

 are eagerly devoured, and a few of them 

 will, in a short time, clear a garden of slugs. 



The objections to the use of a pond are, 

 that, if it be stored with fish, the ducks will 

 commit great havoc on the larvae and small 

 fry of the finny inhabitants ; and, if the water 

 contains any large pike, one of them will 

 sometimes drag down a duckling to feast 

 upon it. The old ones are also powerless in 

 defence of their young; and when attacked 

 by an enemy, the mother, instead of acting 

 as a dung-hill fowl would, uselessly shoots 

 through water, while her ducklings are being 

 carried off" not only by hawks, but occasion- 

 ally even by crows. 



Of this Mr. Waterton relates — as a trial 

 of the fact — his having put an old duck, 

 with a brood of ten ducklings of a fortnight 



