CHAPTER XII 



Ducks and Geese 



DUCKS 



Ducks of the improved races, as they are now 

 found on American farms and poultry plants, are 

 of three general types: the meat type, the laying 

 type and the ornamental type. 



To the meat type belong the Rouen, Aylesbury, 

 Cayuga, Blue Swedish, Blue Termonde, Pekin, Mus- 

 covy and Buff Orpington; to the laying type, the 

 Indian Runner; to the ornamental, the Crested 

 White duck, Gray and White Call ducks and Black 

 East India ducks. The Mallard, or common wild 

 duck, is the common ancestor of all these except 

 the Muscovy, and is frequently captured and bred 

 in domestication where its size becomes so increased 

 after a few generations that it greatly resembles 

 a small specimen of the Rouen duck. 



Meat Types. 



Only four varieties of ducks of the meat type are 

 bred to any extent in California — the Aylesbury, the 

 Muscovy, the Buff Orpington and the Pekin. The 

 Muscovy is kept mainly as a fancy duck and the 

 Buff Orpington, though an excellent market duck, 

 cannot be considered a rival of the Pekin, which 

 is the one duck extensively bred on commercial 

 plants. 



The Pekin duck was brought to England from 

 China in 1874 and to America the next year. It is 

 the common duck of China and was from the first 



