368 
THE DUCK. 
them with stimulating food ; and when the eggs are ready, 
they are put under a hen, who is obliged frequently to 
continue on the nest till three successive hroods have been 
hatched. When the young Ducks leave the shell, they are 
placed near a fire, and nursed with great care. By these 
means many Ducklings are sent at Christmas to London, 
where they meet with ready purchasers. 
Of all people in the world, the Chinese are said to he 
the most skilled in the management of poultry, particularly 
of Ducks, many people at Canton earning their livelihood 
merely by bringing them up ; some buy the eggs and trade j 
with them, others hatch them in ovens, and others attend ! 
on the young ones. The following is their plan : — they lay 
an iron plate on a brick hearth; on this they place a box 
full of sand, half a foot high, in which the eggs are put in 
rows ; they box the cover with a sieve, over which they 
hang a mat. To heat them they make use of a particular 
sort of wood, which burns slowly and uniformly; at first, 
they give them hut little warmth, increasing it gradually, and 
it becomes a strong heat by the time the eggs are hatched. 
If the heat is increased too much, the young Ducks are 
hatched too soon, and in that case they generally die in three 
or four days. The hatched young ones are sold to those 
who bring them up ; and these try, in the following manner, 
whether they are hatched too soon or not. They take up 
the little Ducks by the hill, and let their bodies hang down : 
if they sprawl and extend their feet and wings, they are 
hatched in due time ; hut, if they have had too much heat, 
they hang without struggling. The latter often live till 
they are put to the water, which is generally eight days after 
they are hatched, — this turns them giddy ; they get cramped, 
throw themselves on their hack, and die in convulsions. 
They are carefully fed with boiled rice, mixed up with herbs 
and little fish, chopped small. When they are older, they 
are removed into a larger floating-pen, called a sampane, 
which has a broad bottom of bamboo, with a gallery round, 
above the river, and a bridge declining towards the water. 
An old and experienced step-mother is provided to lead them 
