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Show 278 UOME, 'J'TC DUCIC~. UHAl'. Vlll. Moreover, the plan recommended by Columella to those who might wish to increase their stock of ducks, namely, to collect the eO'O'S of the wild bird and to place th m under a hen, shows, bb l. 0 as Mr. Dixon remarks, "that the duck had not at t us tnno become a naturalised and prolific inmate of the Rom~n poult~yyard." The origin of the domestic dnck from tho wild specws is recognised in nearly every language of Europe: as Ald.rovandi long ago remark d, by the , ame 11amc bcmg. apphed to both. 'fhe wild duck has a wide range from the Himalayas to North America. It crosses readily with the domestic bird, and the cross d offspring arc perfectly fertile. Both in North America and Europe tho wild duck has been found easy to tame and breed. In Sweden this. experit:ncnt ":as carefu1ly tried by Tiburtius; he succeeded m rearmg w.1ld ducks fur three generations, but, thbugh they were treated hko common ducks, they did not vary even in a single feather. 'l'hc young birds suffered from beiug allowed to swim ~bou~ in culd wat r,8 as is known to be the case, though the fact If' a titrange one, with the young of the common domestic dn ·k An aGeunttc and well-known observer in England 9 has described in J.et.ail his often repeated a.nd suecessful experiments in domesticating the wild dude Young binl.s are easily reared from eggs hatched under a bantam; but to succeed it iH indispensable not to place tho eggs of both the wild and tame duck under the ::;arne hen, for in this case "tho young wild clucks die off, leaving their more hardy bretluen in undisturbed possc::;sion of their foster-mother's care. The difference of habit at the onset in the newly-hatched tl.ucklings almost entails such a result to a certainty>' Tho wild duckling were from the first quite tame toward~ thoHe who took earc of them as long as they wore the same cloth s, and likewise to the dogs and cats of the house. They would even snap with their beaks at t1te dog., and drive them away from any spot which they coveted. But they were much alarmed at strange men nncl dogs. Differently from whn,t s [ quote thi .· nccount from 'Die Bntcu, ::ichwnnen-znrltt,' Ulm, 18:28, s. 143. See Audubon's 'Ornithological Biography,' vol. iii. Jl· HiH, on the lam i n~ of dncl; ~ on tho l\1 io:sisJ:>ippi. .For the snmc fad in :England, see 1\lr. "VatcrLon, in Lotlllon's 'Mng. of Nl•L llisL.,'vol.vii'i., 18:35, p. 5-1-2; nndMr. HL Jollll, 'Wild 'port.-; rmd at. lli::;L. of Lito II igldn,ntlf:!,' ll:l4G, I'· l:!D. u 1\lr. E.llowiLt, iu •Jourmd ofliorticulture,' l R62, p. 773; and 1SG3, p. 39 . CHAP. VIII. 'EX'l'EltNAL DJFFER:I!~NCES. 279 occurred in Sweuen, Mr. Hewitt found that his young birds always changed and deteriorated in character in the course of two or three generations; notwithstanding that great care was taken to prevent any crossing with tame ducks. After t~c third. . generation his birds lo t the elegant carriage of the WJlcl spccws, and began to acquire tho gait of the common duck. They increased in size in each generation, and their legs became l ss fine. 1'he whito collar round the neck of the m~Uard bc~amo broader and loss regular, and some of the longer pnmary wmg-fcathers became more or loss white. ·when this occurred, Mr. Hewitt always cle.'troyod his old stock and procured fresh eggs from wild no, ts ; so that he never bred the same family for more than five or six generations. His birds continued to pair together, and never became polyg1-unous like the common domestic duck. I have given these details, because no other case, as far us I know, has been so carefully rccorderl. by a competent observer of the progress of cltange in wild birds reared for several generations in a domestic condition. From these considerations there can hardly be a doubt that tbe wild dude is the parent of the common domestic kind ; nor need we look to distin ·t speci for the parentage of the more distinct breeds, namely, Penguin, Call, Hook-billed, Tufted, and Labrador ducks. I will not repeat the arguments used in the previous chapters on the improbability of man having in ancient times domesticated several species since become unknown or extinct, though ducks arc not readily exterminated in the wild state ;-on some of tho supposed parent-species having had abnormal characters iu comparison with all tho other species of the genus, as with hook-billed and penguin duckf:! ;-on all the breeds, as far as is known, being fertile together; 10-on all the breeds having the same general dispo ition, instinct, &c. But one fact bearing on this question may be noticed: in the great duck family, OlD species alone, namely, the male of 10 I have met with several statements on the fertility of tho several breeds when crossed. Mr. Y11rrcli 11ssurccl me th11L Call and common clucks 11re pcrfeotlv fertile together. I crossed Hook-billed and common ducks, and 11 Penguin and Labmclor, and the crossed ducks were quite fertile, though they were not bred inter se, so that the experiment was not fully tried. Some half-bred Penguins and Labradors were again crossed with Penguins, and subsequently bred by me inter se, and they were cxtrcmclv fertile. · |