THE DUCK. 



231 



CHAP. XII. 



OF THE DUCK, AND ITS VARIETIES. 



THE Tame Duck is the most easily reared 

 of all our domestic animals. The very in- 

 stincts of the young ones direct them to their 

 favourite element ; and though they are con- 

 ducted by a hen, yet they despise the admoni- 

 tions of their leader. 



This serves as an incontestable proof that 

 all birds have their manners rather from 

 nature than education. A falcon pursues the 

 partridge, not because it is taught by the old 

 one, but because its appetites make their 

 importunate call for animal food : the cuckoo 

 follows a very different trade from that which 

 its nurse endeavoured to teach it ; and, if we 

 may credit Pliny, in time destroys its instruc- 

 tor : animals of the duck kind also follow 

 their appetites, not their tutor, and come to 

 all their various perfections without any 

 guide. All the arts possessed by man are 

 the result of accumulated experience ; all the 

 arts of inferior animals are self-taught, and 

 scarcely one acquired by imitation. 



It is usual with the good women to lay 

 duck-eggs under a hen, because she hatches 

 them better than the original parent would 

 have done. 1 The duck seems to be a heed- 

 less inattentive mother ; she frequently leaves 

 her eggs till they spoil, and even seems to 

 forget that she is intrusted with the charge : 

 she is equally regardless of them when ex- 

 cluded ; she leads them to the pond, and 

 thinks she has sufficiently provided for her 

 offspring when she has shown them the water. 



1 The rearing of ducks is made an object of great 

 importance in China. The greater part of them are 

 hatched by artificial warmth; the eggs being laid in 

 boxes of sand, are placed on a brick hearth, to which a 

 proper degree of heat is given during the time re- 

 quired for hatching. The ducklings are fed with craw- 

 fish and crabs, boiled and cut small, and afterwards 

 mixed with boiled rice ; and in about a fortnight they 

 are able to shift for themselves. The Chinese then 

 provide them with an old step-mother, who leads them 

 where they are to find provender, being first put on 

 board a " sampane " or boat, which is destined for 

 their habitation, and from which the whole flock, often 

 300 or 400 in number, go out to feed, and return at 

 command. This method is used nine months out of 

 the twelve, for in the colder months it does not suc- 

 ceed ; and is so far from a novelty that it may be seen 

 everywhere, more especially about the time of cutting 

 the rice, when the masters of the duck-boats row up and 

 down the rivers, according to the opportunity of procur- 

 ing food, which during that season is found in plenty, 

 at the ebb of the tide, on the rice plantations, which are 

 overflowed at high water. It is curious to see how the 

 ducks obey their master; for some thousands belonging 

 to different boats will feed at large on the same spot, 

 and on a signal given, follow the leader to their re- 

 spective boats, without a stranger being found among 

 them. 



Whatever advantages may be procured by 

 coming nearer the house, or attending in the 

 yard, she declines them all ; and often lets 

 the vermin, who haunt the waters, destroy 

 them, rather than bring them to take shelter 

 nearer home. The hen is a nurse of a very 

 opposite character : she broods with the ut- 

 most assiduity, and generally brings forth a 

 young one from every egg committed to her 

 charge ; she does not lead her younglings to 

 the water indeed, but she watchfully guards 

 them when there, by standing at the brink. 

 Should the rat, or the weasel, attempt to seize 

 them, the hen can give them protection; she 

 leads them to the house when tired with 

 paddling, and rears up the supposititious 

 brood, without ever suspecting that they be- 

 long to another. 



The wild duck 2 differs, in .many respects, 

 from the tame ; and in them there is still 

 greater variety than among the domestic 

 kinds. Of the tame duck there are not less 



2 The IFild Duck or Mallard is nearly two feet in 

 length, two feet ten inches in extent of wing, and 



weighs from two and a half to three pounds. The bill 

 is of a greenish yellow colour ; the head and upper part 

 of the neck are of a glossy changeable green, terminated 

 in the middle of the neck by a white collar, with which 

 it is nearly encircled. The scapulars are white, barred 

 or rather undulated with minute lines of brown ; the 

 back is brown, and the rump black, glossed with green. 

 On the wing coverts two transverse white streaks edged 

 with black enclose a broad stripe of a lucid violet-green 

 colour. The lower part of the neck aud breast is of a 

 chestnut-colour; the belly is pale gray, crossed with 

 numerous transverse dusky lines. The tail consists of 

 twenty feathers and is pointed in shape ; the four mid- 

 dle are of a greenish blapk colour and curve upward in a 

 remarkable manner ; the others as usual of a gray 

 brown, margined with white. Legs orange. The 

 female is very plain. The bill is shorter and smaller 

 than that of the male ; and the ground colour of the 

 plumage is pale reddish brown, speckled with black. 

 The violet-green stripe on the wings is as in those of the 

 male; but none of the tail feathers are curved. The 

 young male birds, previously to their first moult, resem- 

 ble rather the female than the male parent. In a 

 domestic state some individuals appear in nearly the 

 same plumage as the wild ones; others vary greatly 

 from them as well as from each other, and are marked 

 with nearly every colour ; but all the males, or drakes, 

 still retain the curled feathers of the tail. The tame 

 cluck is, however, of a more dull and less elegant form 

 and appearance than the wild, domestication having 

 deprived it of its lofty gait, long tapering neck, and 

 sprightly eyes. 



