546 The Illustrated Book of Poultry. 



the more valuable the bird is, the more liable it is to this fault. Big coarse strains, which are of no 

 value except for the table, are comparatively exempt. I have had many old birds, Birmingham 

 winners in their youth, which have in the course of years become more than half white ; and Mrs. 

 Haynes, who has kept the breed much longer, I fancy, than any one else in the kingdom, has told 

 me that she has experienced the same thing. 



" In form, both drakes and ducks should be very neat, elegant, and symmetrical, with small, 

 high-bred looking heads and bills. In size, to be in the fashion, they cannot be too small. Mr. 

 J. K. Fowler, who has had great experience of the breed, says, in a work I have seen, that 

 they should weigh ' as little as two pounds if possible.' I have had many of this weight, and I 

 have one now, a duck, three or four years old, which would not draw the scales at one and three- 

 quarter pounds ; but as a rule I think from two and a quarter to two and a half pounds is a fair 

 weight for a duck for exhibition ; drakes are rather heavier. I fancy if the whole class at 

 Birmingham were weighed, very few pairs would be found under five pounds. I must, however, 

 say I think it is a pity that smallness should be made so much of in judging a class of Black East 

 Indians. It may be said that I, of all men, ought not to raise this objection, inasmuch as I used 

 often to beat my competitors chiefly through the smaller size of my ducks ; but still I do think it, and 

 I know it is the opinion of nearly all the breeders of this variety. Years ago, when Black East 

 Indians were almost the only ' fancy ducks,' it might have been all very well to try and make the 

 breed the ' Bantams,' so to speak, of the duck tribe ; but in these days, when Mandarins, Carolinas, 

 Teal, et hoc genus 07ime, are spread over the countiy in such numbers, I think Black East Indian 

 breeders might be allowed by the judges to look to utility as well as to fancy. This variety 

 naturally is very hardy and very prolific, but it is equally certain that the smaller they are bred the 

 more delicate they become, and the less prolific. They are capital eating too, quite equal to their 

 progenitors, Anas boscJias ; but that good quality is of little use if there is nothing on them to eat. 

 I would not have them brought out as rivals to the gigantic Aylesbury and Rouen, though this 

 might be done, and in no long time either, by crossing them with their unwieldy cousins the 

 Cayugas ; but I would say, let them be shown of a fair average size, and then let the judges decide 

 by brilliancy of plumage combined with symmetry and elegance of form. 



" Black East Indians follow the rule that ' like breeds like.' There is no secret in breeding 

 them for exhibition, except procuring in the first instance the best birds possible. If the parents 

 are good, the offspring will be so also. On the other hand, if you breed from birds too large, or of 

 bad colour, or with bad bills, the young will in all probability be the same. It takes many years 

 to breed down a stock of big ducks into little ones, but one cross of strange blood is generally 

 enough to give increased size, which it takes a long time to get rid of again ; and therefore if prize- 

 winning be the object sought for, any admixture of fresh blood must be used with great discretion. 



"From what I have already said, it will be guessed that I have not found this breed either 

 prolific or hardy ; but the fault, as I have also shown, is the fault of the fashion, not of the breed. 

 There are plenty of strains of this breed which are hardy and prolific enough for anything, but they 

 are useless for exhibition. A friend of mine in Lancashire rears every year about a hundred merely 

 for the table. But if the parents are very small, the shells ot the eggs are very thin, and apt to be 

 broken during the time of sitting ; and when they are hatched, the young are very delicate for the 

 first month or so ; after that I very seldom lose one, or have any trouble with them. 



" They require no special management. I generally turn a drake and two or three ducks into 

 my garden in the early spring, and let them stay there for a month or six weeks. Except when 

 the ground is frozen, I never feed them, but make them find their own living, and a very good living 

 they make of it ; the quantity of slugs and worms they put out of sight is something enormous. 



