MALLARD 
39 
exceedingly heavy ; drakes weighing three and a quarter pounds may be regarded as 
exceptionally fine although three and a half pounds has been recorded. To many 
palates the Mallard, after it has been driven to the sea-coast and forced to feed on 
marine mollusks, acquires a rank and all too gamey taste; but some people prefer 
the sea-flavor of these birds to the flesh of the inland grain-field ducks. The Mallard 
does not necessarily become thin on a winter, animal diet off the coast. In Greenland 
it is said to become “almost as rank as a loon” (Kumlien, 1879), perhaps because 
of the scarcity of vegetable food. Occasional depraved habits of feeding on dead 
animal and vegetable matter have already been mentioned, and during such unusual 
conditions the flesh becomes unfit for food. 
It is related of the meat of ducks, that Cato, the elder, used to feed his patients 
on it. Later, however, the Latin doctors Galen, dEtius, Paulus of ^Egina and others, 
warned against the flesh as being very hard to digest (Keller, 1913). 
Domestication. So far as known, the Mallard was not domesticated in ancient 
Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, or among the Jews. In the time of the Pharaohs it was 
not yet tamed ; and it does not seem to have been an article of game or food until the 
Twelfth Dynasty (2000 b.c.). There was no true domestication in ancient Greece 
either, though in Aristophanes’ time a few were already kept, probably for religious 
or medicinal purposes. In Greek mythology the bird was connected with the cult 
of Aphrodite and consequently with that of Eros and Priapus. The first real at- 
tempt at domestication is seen in the elaborate nessotrophia (enclosed and covered 
duck-ponds) among the Romans of the time of Columella and Varro. In these en- 
closures the birds were fattened for the table, provision being also made for their 
nesting. Of the widespread utilization of the duck in ancient art, and of the prev- 
alence of duck-figures as favorite bits of feminine ornament I cannot here speak. 
The subject is discussed in considerable detail by Keller (1913). 
While there are traces of the domestication of the goose even in pre-Homeric 
times, there is absolutely no evidence that the duck was domesticated among the 
Romans before the beginning of the Christian era. Even then the exact date is 
shrouded in uncertainty. I am not sure that any one distinguished the wild and the 
tame Mallards before St. Hildegard referred to them as aneta silvestris and aneta 
domestica respectively (twelfth century a. d.). The actual process of domestication 
is a rapid one, and can easily be observed by any one who cares to make the effort. 
After two or three generations the natural wildness of the ducklings and old birds 
disappears. The shape and carriage of the birds become greatly changed; they 
are more erect and waddling in their gait, heavier and coarser in appearance, and 
lose almost all inclination to fly. The inbreeding which usually accompanies domes- 
tication is very apt to affect the plumage, and fix variations that crop up, espe- 
cially white primary feathers and other patches of albinism. All these changes are 
