MUSCOVY DUCK 67 



Maximilian von Wied persisted in considering the European birds as having come 

 from Turkey. The ornithologist John Ray (1678) seems to have been the first to 

 attempt to straighten out all the confusion. 



A curious explanation of the name Musk Duck is given by Hill (1864). They 

 were, he says, originally procured from the Mosquito Coast, Nicaragua, the country 

 of the Muy sea Indians (see Humboldt's Researches) , whence was derived the name 

 Musco Duck, corrupted later into Muscovy Duck. 



The West Indian islanders had early domesticated this species, for on the arrival 

 of Columbus his men found "ducks as large as geese" among the Indians. Brezol 

 (1889) quotes Nehring to the effect that the species was imported to Europe in 1550 

 and spread rapidly to France. 



