228 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 
of color, becomes a very persistent characteristic. The 
Aylesbury ducks are pure white, with orange legs, and are 
one of the most beautiful of the white breeds of poultry. 
All white fowls are beautiful and attractive. We have 
white breeds of every kind of domestic fowl,-and they ali 
have such notable excellencies that their admirers claim 
for each that it is the best of itskind. This is notice- 
able in white geese, which have the best plumage; white 
turkeys are most domestic, and white barn-door fowls 
are most prolific. Aylesbury Ducks are claimed to be 
more prolific and to fatten more rapidly for market than 
other large breeds. This variety undoubtedly originated 
in the vicinity of Aylesbury, England, where large num- 
bers are still raised annually for the London market. 
Its characteristics are cistinctly marked, namely: Abun- 
dant but close-fitting plumage of the purest white; a beak 
of peculiar form, being long, straight, and broad, and 
set on aline with the forehead; most noticeable, however, 
from its being of a distinct flesh-color; it sometimes in- 
clines to buff, but this is objectionable. The most deli- 
cate pink (as an English breeder enthusiastically said to 
the writer, ‘pink as a lady’s nail”) is the color pre- 
ferred; the legs are of a light orange color. . Ducks and 
drakes are almost precisely alike, the latter distinguished 
only by the curling feathers of the tail and by the voice, 
or lack of voice. 
This is an old and well-established breed, and in favor- 
able locations breeds very true. Breeders so located 
find it is not difficult to obtain the pink bills without 
stain of yellow or blemish of dark streaks or specks. 
This is supposed to depend upon the purity of the water, 
and on the gravelly bottom of the brooks with which 
their bills are constantly brought in contact. Exposure 
to the sun tans them, and, from some not well-known 
cause, it is almost impossible to obtain perfect bills in 
many places, though the birds grow large and fine. 
