THE TAME DUCK. 201 



for the table than the common duck. The flesh is 

 at first high-flavored and tender, but an old bird would 

 be rank, and the toughest of tough meats. It is 

 strange that a dish should now be' so much out of 

 fashion as scarcely ever to be seen or tasted, which, 

 under the name of Guinea duck, graced every feast 

 in England a hundred and fifty years ago, and added 

 dignity to every table at which it was produced. 



RANGE AND DOMESTIC ACCOMMODATION OF THE COMMON 

 TAME DUCK. 



It is not in all situations that common ducks can 

 be kept with advantage ; they require water much 

 more, even, than the goose ; they are no grazers, yet 

 they are hearty feeders, and excellent " snappers-up 

 of unconsidered trifles ;" nothing comes amiss to them — 

 green vegetables, especially when boiled, the rejecta- 

 menta of the kitchen, meal of all sorts made into a 

 paste, grains, bread, oatcake, animal substances, 

 worms, slugs, and crushed snails, insects and their 

 larvse, are all accepted with eagerness. Their 'appe- 

 tite is not fastidious ; in fact, to parody the line of a 

 song, " they eat all that is luscious, eat all that they 

 can," and seem to be determined to reward their own- 

 er by keeping themselves in first-rate condition if the 

 chance of so doing is afforded them. They never need 

 cramming — give them enough, and they will cram 

 themselves ; yet they have their requirements, and 

 ways of their own,, which must be conceded. Con- 

 finement will not do for them ; a paddock, a pasture, 

 an orchard, a green lane, and a pond ; a farm yard, 

 with barns, and water, a common, smooth and level, 

 with- a sheet of water, and nice ditches, abounding in 

 the season with tadpoles and *the larvse of aquatic in- 

 sects, are the localities in which the duck delights, 

 and in such are they kept at little expense. They trav- 

 erse the green sward in Indian file, (an instinctive 

 habit,) and thus return at evening to their dormitory, 



