202 THE TAME DUCK. 



or emerge from it to the edge of the pond, cr sheet of 

 water, over which they scatter themselves ; thus also, 

 they come to the call of their feeder. 



Ducks should always have a lodging-place of their 

 own, they should be separate from fowls, and never 

 housed beneath their perches ; yet where fowls are 

 kept, a little contrivance will suffice to make their 

 berth, even in a fowl house, tolerably comfortable. In 

 winter, a thin bedding of straw, rushes, or fern leaves 

 should be placed on the floor of their dormitory, and 

 frequently changed. 



As respects the accommodation of the tame duck, 

 Mascall says, " Yee must make a ponde of two feeie 

 deepe, so long and wyde as the place will serve, and 

 that the water there may run full continuallye to the 

 brimme thereof, that the bankes may not be marde, 

 and also made with plaister, and cimmond, (cement ?) 

 in the bottom, and all about the sydes paved with 

 smooth stone, that no weedes do grow therein, but 

 that the fowle may have clear water still run thorow. 

 And in the midst yee shall make a mount of earth, 

 and thereon sowe beannes of Egypt, and such other 

 green herbes as commonly comes in water, to cover 

 and hyde those fowle therein ; for some of them loves 

 to be hid in tuftes of grasse, roses, (rushes ?) sedge, 

 and such ; notwithstanding, yee muste not cover their 

 holes, for the water must be once in the day without 

 weedes." 



Where there is much extent of water or shrubbery, 

 within the range of ducks, they are liable to lay and 

 sit abroad, unless they are constantly looked after, and 

 driven home at night, and provided with proper shelter 

 or pens. These may be made of rough boards, or of 

 rustic work, thatched with straw, as denoted in the 

 following cut. They may also be made after the mode 

 of the poultry house, at p. 86. 



