444 



POULTRY CULTURE 



similar to that of the early European races, ancestral lines meeting 

 not in any domesticated stock but remotely somewhere in the evolu- 

 tion of the wild duck. As nothing is known of other varieties of 

 ducks in China, the Pekin is here usually considered a white breed. 

 The history of other races indicates that it is probably the white 

 variety of a race which, when first domesticated, broke up into various 

 colors. From the extent to which it has displaced other races in 

 America and some parts of Europe, it is easy to suppose that if 

 in China there early arose a popular preference for white ducks, 

 this color long ago became dominant or exclusive. 



FIG. 473. White Muscovy Ducks. (Photograph from owner, Brook View Farm, 

 Newbury, Massachusetts) 



The Muscovy Duck. The Muscovy Duck is a native of South 

 America, introduced to Europeans, as is supposed, sometime in the 

 seventeenth century. The name is a corruption of " musk duck." 

 This duck is in several respects very different from the common 

 wild duck and the races derived from it, and is sometimes described 

 as a distinct species. Many authorities have declared that when 

 crossed with other ducks the offspring are sterile. It seems, how- 

 ever, to be well-established that the bybirds will breed freely with 

 either parent race, if not so readily among themselves. The most 

 conspicuous peculiarity of this race is that the head and face are 

 partly bare, as in the normal fowl, the skin being a brilliant red, 

 roughly carunculated and having a protuberance above the beak 



