RAISING DUCKS. 229 
It is customary in and near Aylesbury to confine the 
ducks in warm houses early in the season,and to induce the 
earliest possible laying, that the young ducks may be mar- 
keted very early in the season, and high prices secured. 
They come to the market just at a season when game 
and other poultry are scarce and high. Now, when the 
Aylesburys are removed from their home surroundings, 
and, as in this country, are treated like other kinds of 
ducks, they retain this tendency to lay, and hatch a 
brood early in mid-winter, only for the first generation 
from importation, even then to a less degree than the 
imported birds show it. The tendency to lay very early 
would no doubt be maintained if it were encouraged as 
it is at home. In regard to the care of ducks, it is well 
to observe that the more a variety is changed by domes- 
tication, the more attention they need, and usually the 
more profit they yield. Many common ducks lay a 
clutch of perhaps 20 small eggs; in sitting, cover half or 
more, and hatch them out, while the Aylesbury Duck 
will lay 60 eggs or more, but until she begins to show a 
tendency to sit, usually a week or ten days before she 
sits, she makes a sort of nest, and there she depoxits her 
eggs. The only way to secure all the eggs is to shut up 
the ducks at night. They will usually lay an egg apiece 
between dawn and eight o’clock; and as soon as each has 
laid, all may be let out. They all march straight for the 
water; and if let out too soon, some eggs will be almost 
surely found in the bottom of the pond. Ducks are 
voracicus and almost omnivorous feeders; they are fond 
of grass and water plants, water-cress especially, and are 
diligent foragers for snails and the little shell-fish of 
fresh-water streams, ponds, and swamps; and, besides, on 
dry land they are indefatigable insect-hunters, young 
ducks being often very useful in a vegetable garden, 
a they gather aud destroy many plant-pests. 
A pair of Aylesbury Ducks fit for exhibition ought 
