266 THE PRACTICAL POULTRY KEEPER. 



other insect food should be provided in addition, in default 

 of which some raw meat cut fine is the best substitute. 



Pea-fowl are tolerably familiar, and if regularly well fed 

 will get very tame, and tap at the window when neglected. 

 They are, however, ill-natured, and frequently beat and 

 even kill other fowls, sometimes even attacking children. 

 From this cause they are ill adapted to keep in a general 

 poultry-yard, apart from their natural impatience of 

 restraint. Young chickens in particular the cocks will 

 often kill, and we believe eat them afterwards. Their only 

 place is on the lawn or in the park, where the splendid 

 hues of the cocks show to great advantage, and their 

 peculiar shrill scream is not too near to be disagreeable, 

 and where they can nest in their own wild way. They do 

 not reach maturity until three years old. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



DUCKS. 



THESE waterfowl cannot be kept successfully unless the 

 breeding and exhibition stock has access to water sufficient 

 to swim in. Without this the eggs are always more or less 

 unfertile, and constitution fails. If there be pretty good 

 range over garden, or farm, or roadside, however, an iron 

 cistern a few feet across, sunk in the ground, may be made 

 to suffice for this, and the birds will still be healthy and 

 fertile, wandering over the soil for slugs and insects. A pen 

 of ducks is most useful in a garden, doing little damage and 

 eating all the slugs they can find : strawberries, however, 

 must be carefully protected from them. The wild duck is 

 monogamous, but in domestication the eggs from three or 

 four ducks to one drake are generally fertile. 



It is very different with ducklings for market, which are 



