AQUATIC FOWLS. 



287 



but their flesh is strong and bad in proportion. 

 They are, on Long Island, fattened upon a 

 coarse sort of crab, called a horse-foot, cast on 

 the shores. When young, they should be fed 

 upon barley-meal, or curds, and kept in a warm 

 and dry place in the night-time, and not let out 

 early in the morning. It always does them 

 harm; and if intended to be sold or killed 

 young, they should never go near ponds, ditches, 

 or streams. When you come to fat ducks, you 

 must take care that they get no filth whatever. 

 They will eat garbage of all sorts ; they will suck 

 down the most nauseous particles of all those 

 substances which go for manure. A dead rat, 

 three parts rotten, is a feast to them. For these 

 reasons we should never eat any ducks unless 

 there were some mode of keeping them from 

 this horrible food. We treat them precisely as 

 \ve do our geese. We buy a troop when they 

 are young, and put them in a pen, and feed 

 them upon oats, cabbages, lettuces, and have the 

 place kept very clean. Our ducks are, in con- 



sequence of this, a great deal more fine and del- 

 icate than any others that we know any thing of." 



They live chiefly on grain scattered about the 

 premises, the siftings and sweepings of barns, all 

 sorts of mealy substances, the residue of brew- 

 eries and boiling-houses, roots, fruits, every 

 thing, indeed, suits them, provided it be rather 

 moist : in fact, nothing seems to come amiss to 

 them. 



Their weight, size, and flavor depend much 

 upon the manner in which they have been fed 

 and fattened. The size of the duck varies much. 

 There are some which, in the course of eight or 

 nine weeks, reckoning from their birth, weigh 

 as much as seven or eight pounds, while others, 

 of the same age and species, do not come to 

 half this weight. As this bird values its liberty 

 very much, it is no less strange than true, that 

 it fattens more readily and rapidly not only in 

 confinement, but even when cooped up; repose 

 and good living appearing to hasten even alder- 

 manic obesity. 



