128 OUR DOMESTIC BIRDS 



race of domestic ducks varied in color as are the common ducks 

 of Europe and America, but as large as the Rouen and Pekin 

 ducks. The Bakubas had had so little intercourse with civilized 

 peoples that it was not at all likely that an improved race of 

 ducks had been introduced from the outside world, and whatever 

 possibility of that might be supposed to exist, the fact that the 

 ducks of this country, like the domestic quadrupeds, were dumb 

 indicates that they are a distinct and very old domestic race. 



FIG. 123. Colored Muscovy Ducks. (Photograph by E. J. Hall) 



It is worth noting in this connection that the missionary, 

 Dr. William H. Sheppard, found it the accepted opinion among 

 this savage people that, by a process of natural selection, the 

 character of dumbness had been acquired by the domestic 

 animals, to which it gave a measure of protection from wild 

 enemies in the forest around them. It seems wonderful that 

 the theory of evolution was found out by such people before 

 it was developed by modern scientists. 



