RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 

 eighteen cents, the cost of production being the same for both. 



The Pekin Combines the Best Points 



The Pekjn is the only b|fd that will cover all these points. 

 It has two slight idefects,— its extreme timidity and its heavy, 

 coarse voice, which it does not scruple to use when congre- 

 gated in large numbers. The former can be easily overcome 

 by careful handling. But to off-set these defects the Pekin 

 will not only produce the first eggs of the season, but by 

 far the greatest number of any of the breeds, with one 

 «xception, the Indian Runner. They mature earlier, are more 

 hardy and domestic in their habits, never wandering far, and 

 always returning to the coops at night. They are not mis- 

 chievous, and require less water than either of the other 

 breeds. 



My birds were for generations bred in. dry yajds, with 

 simply water to drink, and all desire for it for other purposes 

 seemed to have been bred out of them. When allowed their 

 freedom in the fall, the flocks never visited the brook, fifteen 

 or twenty rods distant, and when driven there occasionally 

 for the purpose of purifying their feathers, got out again just 

 as soon as possible. Indeed, after a water bath their feathers 

 clung to their bodies, and they presented the same bedraggled 

 appearance that the old hen did many years ago after one 

 had immersed her in a water-barrel to cure her propensity 

 for sitting. 



A wealthy New Yorker ordered a dozen of my best 

 <iucks. In a few weeks he wrote that he wished to return 

 them, as they did not answer his purpose; "for," said he, "I 

 have an artificial lake on my lawn, near my piazza, and I 

 wanted these ducks to disport in the water for the pleasure of 

 my wife and children, and they will not go in the water at 

 all unless I drive them in with a whip, and I have to stand 

 guard over them all the time, as they get out the moment 

 my back is turned." I wrote him in return that had I known 

 he wanted the ducks for their aquatic performances I should 

 have recommended the common puddle duck, when he would 

 have had as much trouble to get them out of the water as 

 he had to get the Pekins in. 



Feathers are Pure White 



Another advantage of the Pekin over the other breeds 

 is their pure white, elastic feathers which are largely mixed 

 with down. These feathers readily command from forty to 

 fifty cents per pound, and as the reader can see, are no mean 

 source of income, especially when the birds are grown in 



[ n ] 



