278 DOMESTIC DUCKS. 



Chap. VIII. 



Moreover, the plan recommended by Columella to those who 

 mi glit wish to increase their stock of ducks, namely, to collect 

 the eggs of the wild bird and to place them under a hen, shows 

 as Mr. Dixon remarks, "that the duck had not at this time 

 become a naturalised and prolific inmate of the Eoman poultry- 

 yard." The origin of the domestic duck from the wild species 

 is recognised in nearly every language of Europe, as Alclro- 

 vandi long ago remarked, by the same name being applied 

 to both. The wild duck has a wide range from the Himalayas 

 to North America. It crosses readily with the domestic bird, 

 and the crossed offspring are perfectly fertile. 



Both in North America and Europe the wild duck has been 

 found easy to tame and breed. In Sweden this experiment was 

 carefully tried by Tiburtius ; he succeeded in rearing wild 

 ducks for three generations, but, though they were treated like 

 common ducks, they did not vary even in a single feather. 

 The young birds suffered from being allowed to swim about in 

 cold water, 8 as is known to be the case, though the fact is a 

 strange one, with the young of the common domestic duck. An < 



accurate and well-known observer in England 9 has described in 

 detail his often repeated and successful experiments in domesti- 

 cating the wild duck. Young birds are easily reared from eggs 

 hatched under a bantam ; but to succeed it is indispensable 

 not to place the eggs of both the wild and tame duck under 

 the same hen, for in this case " the young wild ducks die off, 

 leaving their more hardy brethren in undisturbed possession of 

 their foster-mother's care. The difference of habit at the onset 

 in the newly-hatched ducklings almost entails such a result to 

 a certainty." The wild ducklings were from the first quite 

 tame towards those who took care of them as long as they wore 

 the same clothes, and likewise to the dogs and cats of the house. 

 They would even snap with their beaks at the dogs, and drive 

 them away from any spot which they coveted. But they were 

 much alarmed at strange men and dogs. Differently from what 



8 I quote this account from 'Die Waterton, iu Loudon's 'Mag. of Nat. 



Enten, Schwanen-zucht,' Ulm, 1828, s. Hist./ vol. viii., 1835, p. 542 ; and Mr. 



143. .See Audubon's ' Ornithological St. John, ' Wild Sports and Nat. Hist. 



Biography,' vol. iii. p. 168. on the of the Highlands,' 1846, p. 129. 

 taming of ducks on the Mississippi. 9 Mr. E. Hewitt, in ' Journal of Hor- 



For the same fact in England, see Mr. ticulture,' 1862, p. 773 ; and 1863, p. 39. 



