196 



for its successful issue, but for its being exercised at 

 all, and was little likely to be much practised by any 

 European nation, in the interva* between the fall of 

 the Roman Empire and the present day, with a crea- 

 ture that required a course of generations to reclaim 

 it. I am inclined, therefore, to consider the race of 

 farmyard ducks as an importation, through whatever 

 channel, from the East, and to point out the discovery 

 of the passage of the Cape of Good Hope, (1493,) as 

 the approximate date. The early voyagers speak of 

 finding them in the East Indies exactly similar to 

 ours ; and the transmission of a few pairs would be a 

 much easier task than to subdue the shyness and 

 wildness of the wild mallard, and induce an alteration 

 in its bony structure. 



The mallard, though not gone, is fast diminishing 

 as a permanent inhabitant of England ; the tame duok, 

 so much larger and heavier, if its descendant, can 

 hardly be called a degenerate one. The mallard is 

 very widely diffused over the continental part both of 

 the Old and the New World, and therefore its supposed 

 adaptation to domestic life is as likely to have occur- 

 red in Asia as in Europe. Its dislike to salt water 

 has made it less cosmopolitan among the islands. 

 Dampier, in his "Voyages," repeatedly mentions that in 

 the East Indies, "the tame fowls are ducks and dung- 

 hill fowls, both in great plenty ; he does not describe 

 the ducks, except as " the same with ours." He was 

 doubtless correct in believing them to be the same ; 

 although we know that the old travellers, and many 

 of the modern emigrants, are not very precise in their 

 zoology, and indeed might sometimes be excusably 

 puzzled. For instance, when Captain Wallis, soon 

 after he had discovered Otaheite, saw animals lying 

 on the shore with their fore feet growing behind their 

 heads, rising every now and then, and running a little 

 way in an erect posture ; he was naturally incited 

 with curiosity to inspect them more closely ; and after- 

 wards found that they were dogs with their fore legs 



