cause domesticated Runners (admittedly sent from England to In- 

 dia at a time when Runners in England were in a bad tangle as 

 to type) are also found there, is to show an amazing lack of 

 logic. It would be exactly as sensible for a Chinaman who had 

 never seen a wild Mallard here, to swear that there were no wild 

 Mallards in existence in the United States because he had seen 

 or heard of domesticated Mallards, and crossed Mallards, (and 

 even Runner-Mallards) here! 



I have been for some time in possession of letters telling of 

 "importations direct from Calcutta", and indeed of a photograph 

 said to show one of them. A few people seem to believe that 

 India was "salted" with Runners! A Dutch writer speaks of 

 Runners as somewhat common in some parts of the Dutch East 

 Indies. However, it seems likely that all these may be of the 

 "from-Europe" kind. A letter is even now being published by 

 the less-careful poultry journals, purporting to give positive proof 

 that there are no Runners native to India. The so-called "proof" 

 is so flimsy as to be almost ludicrous. It consists chiefly of a 

 "probable" and a "probably" from an "Agricultural Adviser's 

 assistant", doubtless only a clerk with as scant knowledge of 

 things outside his desk as clerks usually have. Even if the one 

 real statement of the letter: "Nothing in the nature of a 

 definite breed of duck is obtainable in India, as there are as yet 

 no fanciers who have taken up the selection of birds to type," be 

 literally and exactly true, it would have no bearing on the ques- 

 tion; except to make it the more likely that all the people who 

 deny Mr. Walton's claims to have imported Runners from there 

 are wrong. For, the word "breed" is never properly used ex- 

 cept in connection with domesticated animals. The claimed im- 

 portations by various people in England and the United States 

 of birds which are said to be fairly common in India may very 

 well be domesticated "Runners of the rather indifferent kind sent 

 from England to India twenty or thirty or perhaps more years 



144 



