2D2 DOMESTIC DUCKS. Chap. VIII. 



the necessity of keeping ducks in netted enclosures like other 

 wild fowl, so that at this period there was danger of their 

 flying away. Moreover, the plan recommended by Columella 

 to those who wish to increase their stock of ducks, namely, 

 to collect the eggs of the wild bird and to place them under 

 a hen, shows, as Mr. Dixon remarks, "that the duck had 

 not at this time become a naturalized and prolific inmate of 

 the Eoman poultry-yard." The origin of the domestic duck 

 from the wild sj^ecies is recognised in nearly every language 

 of Europe, as Aldrovandi long ago remarked, by the same 

 name being applied to both. The wild duck has a wide 

 range from the Himalaj'as to Xorth America. It crosses 

 readily with the domestic bird, and the crossed offspring are 

 perfectly fertile. 



Both in North America and Europe the wild duck has been 

 found easy to tame and breed. In Sweden this experiment 

 was carefully triofl by Tiburtius ; he succeeded in rearing 

 wild ducks for three generations, but, though they were 

 treated like common ducks, they did not vary even in a 

 single feather. The young birds suffered from being allowed 

 to swim about in cold water,* as is known to be the case, 

 though the fact is a strange one, with the young of the 

 common domestic duck. An accurate and well-known ob- 

 server in England^ has described in detail his often repeated 

 and successful experiments in domesticating the wild duck I 

 Young birds are easily reared from eggs hatched under a 

 bantam ; but to succeed it is indispensable not to place the 

 eggs of both the wild and tame duck under the same hen, 

 for in this case " the young wild ducks die off, leaving their 

 more hardy brethren in undisturbed possession of their foster- 

 mother's care. The difference of habit at the onset in the 



and torn. xxi. p. 55. Rev. E. S. the taming of ducks on the Mississippi. 



Dixon, 'Ornamental Poultry,' p. 118. For the same fact in England, see Mr. 



Tame ducks were not known in Aris- Waterton in Loudon's Jlag. of Nat. 



totle's time, as remarked by Volz, in Hist.,' vol. viii. 1835, p. 542 ; and 



his ' Beitrage zur Kulturgeschichte,' Mr. St. John, 'Wild Sports and Nat. 



1852, s. 78. Hist, of the Highlands,' 1846, p. 129. 



' I quote this account from ' Die ° Mr. E. Hewitt, in ' Journal of 



Enten- und Schwanenzucht,' Ulm, Horticulture,' 1862, p. 77o ; and 



1828, s. 143. See Audubon's ' Ornitho- 1863, p. 39. 

 logical Biography,' vol. iii. p. 168, on 



