llect 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 Roman poultry-yard." The origin of the domestic duck from the wild species is recognised in nearly every language of Europe, as Aldrovandi 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 (8/8. I quote this account from 'Die Enten- und Schwanenzucht' Ulm 1828 s. 143. See Audubon 'Ornithological Biography' volume 3 page 168 on the taming of ducks on the Mississippi. For the same fact in England see Mr. Waterton in Loudon's 'Mag. of Nat. Hist.' volume 8 1835 page 542; and Mr. St. John 'Wild Sports and Nat. Hist. of the Highlands' 1846 page 129.), 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 (8/9. Mr. E. Hewitt in 'Journal of Horticulture' 1862 page 773; and 1863 page 39.) has described in detail his often repeated and successful experiments in domesticating 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 occurred in Sweden, 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 their crossing with tame ducks. After the third generation his birds lost the elegant carriage of the wild species, and began to acquire the gait of the common duck. They increased in size in each generation, and their legs became less fine. The white collar round the neck of the mallard became broader and less regular, and some of the longer primary wing-feathers became more or less white. When this occurred, Mr. Hewitt destroyed nearly the whole of his stock and procured fresh eggs from wild nests; so that he never bred the same family for more than five or six generations. His birds continued to pair together, and never became polygamous like the common domestic duck. I have given these details, because no other case, as far as I know, has been so carefully recorded by a competent observer of the progress of change in wild birds reared for several generations in a domestic condition.
From these considerations there can hardly be a doubt that the wild duck is the parent of the common domestic kind; nor need we look to other species 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 are not readily exterminated in the wild state;--on some of the supposed parent-species having had abnormal characters in comparison with all the other species of the genus, as with Hook-billed and Penguin ducks;--on all the breeds, as far as is known being fertile together (8/10.