meeting one onlooker who said jokingly that he "should always 

 dread the danger of the bird falling backward." 



Mr. Walton has been somewhat reticent about these myster- 

 ious Runners. He has felt so strongly the danger to the breed 

 from a certain attitude in England which led nearly to its ruin, 

 some years ago, that he resolved to keep full control over the new 

 "wonder" ducks, in his own hands and those of one or two 

 friends, who have worked with him, till their characteristics were 

 well impressed on the best of the earlier stock. None of the birds 

 was offered for sale at the Palace Show, the prohibitive price of 

 a thousand guineas each being catalogued. 



I have considered it necessary to mention and to stress these 

 facts and these proofs, since Belgian "authorities" have persisted 

 in claiming that the English Indian Runners were only an inferior 

 type of a common Belgian Duck. 



A certain critic came out plump with the statement that Mr. 

 Donald, through his booklet, "was strongly active in clouding the 

 real cradle of the Runners, by claiming that they were first im- 

 ported into England in an India ship. The critic is also father to 

 the statement that Rouen blood was used in getting larger size, 

 thus necessitating the disqualification for claret breast. Concern- 

 ing the remark about Mr. Donald, Mr. Walton says: "So far 

 from Donald's pamphlet clouding their origin, if it had not been 

 for that pamphlet the new birds might never have been located 

 and secured. Donald's pamphlet is vindicated and his facts in 

 the main substantiated. The early birds, without a doubt, came 

 by an India ship; and the assertion that Donald clouded the cradle 

 of the Runners is absolutely unwarranted and untrue. The re- 

 verse is the fact. X — (the critic) by his own writings proves 

 that he, for one, knows nothing about the Indian Runner. From 

 first to last, his article is wrong, and how any one with such ig- 

 norance of Indian Runners could profess to correct others is be- 

 yond my comprehension." 



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