Chai\ VIII. EXTERNAL DIFFERENCES. 291 



theless this sub-variety is polyi;;xmous, like other domesticated 

 ducks and unlike the wild duck. These black Ijabrador ducks 

 breed true; but a case is given by Dr. Turral of the French sub- 

 variety ]iroducing young witli some white featliers on the head and 

 neck, and with an ochre-colourcd patch on the breast. 



Breed 2. IJvok-hiUeil Duck.—T\\\s bird i^reseuts an extraordinary 

 ajipearance from the downward curvature of the beak. The head is 

 often tufted. The common colour is white, but some are coloured 

 like wild ducks. It is an ancient breed, having Iteeu noticed in 

 167G.^ It shows its prolonged domestication 1)y almost incessantly 

 laying eggs, like the fowls which are called everlasting layers.'' 



Bkeed 3. Call Duck. — Bemarkable from its small size, and from 

 the extraordinary loquacity of the female. Beak short. These 

 birds are either white, or coloured like the wild duck. 



Breed 4. FerKjuin Duck. — Tliis is the most remarkable of all the 

 breeds, and seems to have originated in the Malayan archipelago. 

 It walks with its body extremely erect, and with its thin neck 

 stretched straight upwards. Beak rather short. Tail upturned, 

 including only 18 feathers. Femur and metatarsus elongated. 



Almost all naturalists admit that the several breeds are 

 •lescended from the common wild duck (Anas boschas) ; most 

 fanciers, on the other hand, take as usual a very diilerent 

 view.^ Unless we deny that domestication, prolonged during 

 centuries, can aflect even such unimpdrtant characters as 

 colour, size, and in a slight degree proportional dimensions 

 and mental disposition, there is no reason whatever to douljt 

 that the domestic duck is descended from the common wild 

 species, for the one diflers fr(.)in the other in no important 

 character. We have some historical evidence with respect to 

 the period and progress of the domestication of the duck. It 

 was unknown'^ to the ancient Egyptians, to the Jews of the 

 Old Testament, and to the Greeks of the Homeric period. 

 About eighteen centuries ago Columella " and Varro speak of 



3 \Villu2;hl>y's 'Ornithology,' by ^ Rev. E. S. I»ixou, ' Ornaiiiunt;i; 



Kay, p. .'iSl. This breed is also and Donn'stic Poultry' (1848). p. 



figured by Albin, in 1734, in his 117. Mr. B. P. Brent, in 'Poultrv 



'Nat. Hist, of Birds,' vol. ii. p. 86. Chronicle,' vol. iii., 18-55, p. .512. 



* F. Cuvier,in'AnnalesduMuseum,' "^ Crawfurd on the 'Relation of 



torn. i.\. p. 128, says that moulting Domesticated Animals to Civilisation," 



and incubation alone stops these ducks read before the Brit. Assoc, at O.xlord, 



laying. Mr. B. P. Brent makes a 1860. 



similar remark in the 'Poultry Chro- ' Dureau de la Malle, in 'Annales 



aide,' 1855, vol. iii. p. 512. des Sciences Nat.,' torn. xvii. p. 104; 



U 2 



