it less cosmopolitan among the islands. Dampier, in his Voyages, repeatedly mentions that in the East Indies "the tame Fowls are Ducks and Dunghill Fowls, both in great plenty;" he does not describe the Ducks, except as "the same with ours." He was doubtless correct in believing them to be the same; although we know that the old travellers, and many of the modern emigrants, are not very precise in their zoology, and indeed might sometimes be excusably puzzled. For instance, when Captain Wallis, soon after he had discovered Otaheite, saw animals lying on the shore with their fore feet growing behind their heads, rising every now and then, and running a little way in an erect posture, he might naturally be moved with curiosity to inspect them more closely he afterwards found that they were dogs with their fore legs tied behind them, brought down by the natives as a peace-offering and a festival dish.

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One of the most valid arguments in favour of the derivation of the Tame Duck from the Mallard, is to be found in the readiness with which the former returns to a wild or a half-wild state. In Norfolk there is a breed called "Marsh Ducks," more from their habits and place of birth than from any peculiarity of race. They are mostly of plumage generally similar to the Mallard, though an ornithologist would immediately distinguish them; their size and the fineness of their bones are intermediate between the wild bird and the common farm-yard Duck. They are turned out on the marshes to forage for themselves indeed it would be next to impossible to keep them at home; and of the number which are annually lost to their masters, it would seem likely that quite as many assume an independent condition, as are killed by birds, beasts, or men, of prey; but still they do not appear to be ever found actually and entirely wild. They are frequently sent to market towards the close of summer, without being shut up at all to fatten, and afford a cheap and relishing addition to the table.

Similar instances on a smaller scale are frequent. "A

farmer in our neighbourhood (Wiltshire) has a Duck, of the common black and white sort, that every year takes it into her head to abscond to the river, where she lays her eggs. She does not, however, I believe, pair with any Wild Drake, but remains the whole summer in a wild state with her young ones, and then quietly returns to the yard in autumn. When I have been taking a walk sometimes about four in the morning, I have frequently seen her on the Down, about a hundred yards from the water. On being alarmed they would all run and dart into the water with great rapidity: and this plan the old lady has acted on for several years, escaping unscathed by guns and dogs."-H. H.

There are several varieties of Tame Ducks, but their merits are more diverse in an ornamental than in a profitable point of view, and will be estimated very much according to the taste of individual fanciers. Those who merely want a good supply for the table, cannot do better than just to adopt the sort most common in their own vicinity. No country place should be without some, especially in low situations. A Drake and two or three Ducks will cost little to maintain, and will do incalculable and unknown service by the destruction of slugs, snails, worms, and the larvæ of gnats, and other annoying insects. The only trouble they will give, is, that if there be much extent of water or shrubbery about their home, they will lay and sit abroad, unless the poultry-maid or the boy gets them up every night. Otherwise, they will drop their eggs carelessly here and there, or incubate in places where their eggs will be sucked by carrion-crows, and half their progeny destroyed by rats. In the neighbourhood of large pieces of water, or wide spreading marshes, this will be either impossible, or attended with more waste of time than the Ducks are worth. In which case, and indeed in all cases with Ducks, I believe the slave-owner's maxim to be correct, that it is cheaper to buy than to breed. The smaller they are bought in, the more good service they will perform in ridding a place of

minute crawling and creeping nuisances; and the most profitable management of them is to let them gorge all they can swallow as fast as they can digest it, and to make them fit for table, and for the supply of materials for feather-beds, at the earliest possible moment. The quickest return will be the most remunerative.

As to cooking them, there is only one traditional old English mode. We would gladly transfer, as an illustration to these pages, Leech's admirable "Romance of Roast Ducks," from "Punch," June 24, 1848, although he ought to have made the accompanying green peas more distinctly visible.

"Lingo.-Ah, Cowslip, if you was a goddess! Jove loved an eagle; Mars, a lion; Phœbus, a cock; Venus, a pigeon; Minerva loved an owl.

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Cowslip. I should not have thought of your cock-lions, your owls, and your pigeons; if I was a goddess, give me a Roast Duck." The Agreeable Surprise, Act 1.

In the Principality they have a delicate way of serving them boiled, with onion sauce. On attempting to reproduce the dish after a tour in North Wales, the result was utter failure, till the secret was discovered that the Ducks must be salted a couple of days before being boiled. Still more heterodox fashions have been practised in former days.

"The Pottage of Ducks with Turnips, is made of Ducks larded, and half fried in Lard, or which have took three or four Turns on the Spit; then they are put in a Pot. The Turnips, after they have been cut in Pieces, and flour'd, are also fried in Lard, till they are very brown; then they are put in the same Pot with the Ducks, and left to boil slowly in Water, till the Ducks are done. Before the Pottage is carried to Table, it may be season'd with a few drops of Verjuice."

"To make a 'Ragout of Ducks,' they must be larded, fried, very well season'd with Salt, Pepper, Spices, young Onions, and Parsley, and put in a Pot to stew, with a little of our best Broth."

"Ducks are roasted with four Roses of Lardons, one on each Wing, and one on each Leg: Some put another on the Stomach."

"To make a Duck Pye, the Ducks must be larded, well seasoned, and the Pye baked for the Space of three Hours."-Dennis de Coetlogon's Universal History, p. 827, et seq.

The reader will take his choice; we only wish him a good appetite and pleasant company; the living birds belong more properly to our department.

Of White Ducks, the best is the Aylesbury, with its unspotted snowy plumage and yellow legs and feet. It is large and excellent for the table, but not larger or better than others. They are assiduous mothers and nurses, especially after the experience of two or three seasons. A much smaller race of White Ducks is imported from Holland; their chief merit, indicated by the title of Call Duck, consists in their incessant loquacity.* They are useful only to the proprietors of extensive or secluded waters, as enticers of passing wild birds to alight and join their society. But in Norfolk, where the management of Decoys is as well understood as anywhere, the trained Decoy Ducks are selected to resemble the Mallard, male and female, as nearly as possible. Both systems are found to answer; the wild-coloured traitors arouse no suspicion, while the conspicuous Dutchmen excite fatal attention and curiosity. When the newly

"The chief point to be attended to in England, is to get, if possible, some young wild Ducks bred up and pinioned. Or, by way of a makeshift, to select tame birds which are the most clamorous, even if their colour should not be like the wild ones. But in France you have seldom any trouble to do this, as the Ducks used in that country are partly of the wild breed; and three French Ducks, like three Frenchmen, will make about as much noise as a dozen English. The Italians, in order to make their call-birds noisy, for a roccalo," burn out their eyes with a hot needle, a practice at which I am sure my English readers would shudder; though the translation of what they say in Italy is, that these are the happiest birds in the world; always singing.'"-COLONEL HAWKER'S Instructions, p. 367.

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arrived immigrants, although bent on a pleasure excursion from the north, are listless, or suspicious of their company, and will not enter the Decoy, they may often be made to do so by the sudden display of a red handkerchief, or the rapid appearance and disappearance of a Spaniel.

There is also the White Hook-billed Duck, with a bill monstrously curved downwards, not upwards, as some writers have it, Roman-nosed Ducks in short, with features like Cruikshank's Jews, of a most grotesque and ludicrous appearance. It may be superfluous to remind the reader, that White Ducks make but a sorry figure in towns or dirty suburbs, or any where that the means of washing themselves are scanty.

The cottagers living on the northern coast of Norfolk have one or two varieties that are very pretty, and are not usual, one of a slate-grey or bluish dun, another of a sandy yellow; there are some also with top-knots,* which rival the Hook-billed Duck in oddity.

Of mottled and pied sorts there exist a great variety; black and white, brown and white, lightly speckled, and many other mixtures. The Rouen Duck of Poultrybooks can hardly be separated from this miscellaneous rabble, and ought to be permitted to return to its original obscurity in the multitude. It is wrong to lead people to pay high prices for them as stock; and we are quite at a loss to discover in them any unusual merit or other describable peculiarity. They appear to be identical with the commonest Ducks which we have everywhere. Penguin Ducks ought also to go in company with this odd lot. Their peculiarity consists in walking uprightly, in feeble imitation of a Penguin. But it is not strikingly apparent when they are in an ordinary frame of mind. A sudden fright makes them raise their heads, as it will many other birds.

"Some of the tufted tame Ducks, near Salisbury, are very handsome, having crests as compact and spherical as any Polish Fowl; but whether this is, or was, any distinct variety, will not undertake to say."-H. H.