THE POULTRY BOOK. 
301 
most admirably to draw me from the spot. The males, however, I have never 
seen thus employed. 
“ I once observed nine very young ducklings in a moss-pot, and was amused to 
see how they kept together, always in the middle of the water. Numbers of the 
young, or flappers, are taken, mostly by dogs, in the end of July and in August. 
The males do not assume the female plumage until well on in June, and have 
their own bright dress again by the beginning of November. Wild ducks 
occasionally breed with the tame, the crosses showing a disposition to take wing. 
The young may be brought up, but are not to be trusted unless with tame ones, 
when they will keep at home. The crossed birds thus produced are said to have a 
fine flavour, and to be very readily fattened.’ ” 
Mr. St. John, in his “Wild Sports of the Highlands,” has a very pleasant 
chapter on Wild Ducks, in which he says : — 
“ I have frequently caught and brought home young wild ducks. If confined 
in a yard or elsewhere for a week or two with tame birds, they strike up a 
companionship which keeps them from wandering when set at liberty. Some few 
years back I brought home three young wild ducks ; two of them turned out to be 
drakes. I sent away my tame drakes, and in consequence, the next season, had a 
large family of half-bred and wholly wild ducks, as the tame and wild bred together 
quite freely. The wild ducks which have been caught are the tamest of all ; 
throwing off all their natural shyness, they follow their feeder, and will eat corn out 
of the hand of any person with whom they are acquainted. The half-bred birds 
are sometimes pinioned, as they are inclined to fly away for the purpose of making 
their nests at a distance : at other times, they never attempt to leave the field in 
front of the house. These birds conceal their eggs with great care, and I have 
often been amused at the trouble the poor duck is put to in collecting dead leaves 
and straw to cover her eggs, when they are laid in a well-kept flower-bed. I often 
have a handful of straw laid on the grass at a convenient distance from the nest, 
which the old bird soon carries off and makes use of. The drakes, though they 
take no portion of the nesting labours, appear to keep a careful watch near at hand 
during the time the duck is sitting. The half-breeds have a peculiarity in 
common with the wild duck, which is, that they always pair, each drake taking 
charge of only one duck; not, as is the case with the tame ducks, taking to 
himself a dozen wives. The young, too, when first hatched, have a great deal of 
the shyness of wild ducks, showing itself in a propensity to run off and hide in 
any hole or corner that is handy. 
“ With regard to the larder, the half- wild ducks are an improvement on both 
the tame and wild, being superior to either in delicacy and flavour ; their active 
and neat appearance, too, make them a much more ornamental object (as they 
walk about in search of worms on the lawn or field) than a waddling, corpulent, 
barnyard duck.” 
The young are at first covered with close stiffish down, of a greyish-yellow 
colour, variegated with dusky on the upper parts. The downy covering continues 
