294 DOMESTIC DUCKS. Chap. VIll. 



being fertile together ; ^^ — on all the breeds having the same 

 general disposition, instinct, &c. But one fact bearing on 

 this question ma}^ be noticed: in the great duck family, one 

 species alone, namely, the male of A. bosclias, has its fui;r 

 middle tail-feathers curled upwardly ; now in every one 

 of the above-named domestic breeds these curled feathers 

 exist, and on the sujiposition that they are descended from 

 distinct species, we must assume that man formerly hit 

 upon species all of which had this now unique character. 

 Moreover, sub varieties of each breed are coloured almost 

 exactly like the wild duck, as I have seen with the 

 largest and smallest breeds, namely Eouens and Call ducks, 

 and, as Mr. Brent states,!^ is the case with Hook billed 

 ducks. This gentleman, as he informs me, crossed a white 

 Aylesbury drake and a black Labrador duck, and some of 

 the diicklings as they grew up assumed the plumage of the 

 wild duck. 



With respect to Penguins, I have not seen many specimens, 

 and none were coloui'ed precisely like the wild duck ; but Sir 

 James Brooke sent me three skins from Lombok and Bali, in 

 the Malayan archipelago ; the two females were paler and 

 more rufous than the wild duck, and the drake differed in 

 having the whole under and upper surface ^excepting the 

 neck, tail-coverts, tail, and wings) silver-grey, finely pencilled 

 with dark lines, closely like certain parts of the plumage of 

 the wild mallard. But I found this drake to be identical in 

 every feather with a variety of the common breed procured 

 from a farm-yard in Kent, and I have occasionally elsewhere 

 seen similar specimens. The occurrence of a duck bred under 

 so peculiar a climate as that of the Malayan archipelago, 

 where the wild species does not exist, with exactly the same 



'" I have met with several state- mter se, so that the experimput was 



ments on the fertility of the several not fully tried. Some half-bred 



breeds when crossed. Mr. Yarrell Penguins and Labradors were again 



assured me that Call and common crossed with Penguins, and subse- 



ducks are perfectly fertile together. (juently bred by me inter se, and they 



I crossed Hook-billed and common were extremely fertile. 



ducks, and a Penguin and Labrador, >' 'Poultry Chronicle,' 1855, vol 



and the crossed Ducks were quite iii. p. 512. 

 fertile, though they were not bred 



