THE TAME DUCK. 195 



continues he, "it is a /ery old mode to collect the 

 eggs of the above-mentioned birds, (such as teal, mal- 

 lard, &c.,) and to place them under common hens; 

 for the young thus hatched and reared, cast off their 

 wild tempers, and undoubtedly breed, when confined 

 in menageries. For if it is your plan to place fresh- 

 caught birds that are accustomed to a free mode ot 

 life in captivity, they will be but slow breeders in a 

 state of bondage." 



Cicero also speaks of hatching ducks' eggs under 

 hens, (De Natura Deorum, II.,) but there is nothing 

 in the passage from which to infer that those ducks 

 were domesticated, but rather the contrary ; as he re- 

 marks how soon they abandon their foster mother and 

 shift for themselves. 



Pliny describes the flight of ducks, as rising imme- 

 diately from the water into the higher regions of the 

 atmosphere ; a performance that would make our duck 

 keepers uneasy. The very little mention that he 

 makes of ducks at all, shows that he did not habitually 

 see them in domestication. 



" Suppose it, however, to be proved," says Dixon, 

 "that the tame duck is a comparative novelty in the 

 West, it by no means follows that it is so on the Asi- 

 atic continent and islands, nor, as a corollary, that it 

 is a tamed descendant of our mallard. If the skele- 

 tons of one and the other were placed side by side, it 

 would require, not a skillful comparative anatomist, 

 but only an observant sportsman, or even an ordinary 

 cook, to point out which was which.* Nor has suffi- 

 cient weight been attached to the circumstance of one 

 bird being polygamous, and the other monogamous." 

 When I come to speak of the domestic goose, it will 

 be seen how little such a difference is likely to be the 

 result of domestication. Let us not forget, too, that 

 the domestication of wild races is an art that demands 

 quiet, peace, patience, and superabundance, not merely 



* " You need not be at a loss to know a wild duck. The claws in the wUd 

 species are black COL. HAWKER 



