THE WEB-FOOTED DUCK AND GOOSE
While the hen is not fond of water, the duck and goose could not well live without it. They are born for swimming, with webs between their toes that serve as oars. On the land they walk with an ugly waddling gait, but in the water they are very graceful, and a flock of swimming ducks or geese is a pretty sight.
In raising ducks the nature of the bird needs to be kept in mind. Water is its native element and it will not do well on the land. It cannot be kept in a coop or an inclosed place like fowls, but give it an open field, with a running stream, and it will ask nothing more. You will hardly need to feed it, for it knows well how to feed itself.
The duck is not a lazy bird. It will eat almost anything, and is always waddling about picking up snails, grubs, and insects, or sailing on the water and thrusting its beak into the soft mud for worms.
Willie and His Pet Ducks
If the duck farm is large enough and has a pond or stream, the keeping of ducks is very easy. They are nearly free from disease and need little looking after. Some kinds of ducks are very handsome, their colors being bright and varied. The male of the common duck (known as a drake) has a splendid plumage in its wild state. The head and upper neck are of deep emerald green. Lower down is a collar of white, and the lower neck is of dark chestnut. The wings are of a beautiful deep blue.
The tame bird is not nearly so beautiful. It uses its legs instead of its wings to get about, so that it almost forgets how to fly. This easy life and plenty of food helps it to grow and fatten, a fact that makes it better suited to man's use. It has long forgotten how to build a nest and almost how to sit on its eggs, so that in some places the hen is used to hatch out the young ducks. To see a hen going about with a flock of young ducklings looks odd to us, and when the little waddlers jump into the water and swim away the hen mother seems sadly scared. She fears that all her pretty ducklings will be drowned.
When the baby duck gets out of the egg and is ready to begin life it is shut up for a few days and fed on soft food, such as ground wheat and barley mixed with hard-boiled egg. After this it is let out into the field and set free to search for the animal food it needs. In Belgium, where many ducklings are raised, it is comical to see the breeder hopping about the field on big wooden shoes, kicking up the earth as he goes so as to force out the worms for the little strangers to feed on. It does not take them long to learn how to find food for themselves.
Of the different kinds of ducks we may name the Rouen of France as a fine and beautiful bird and a good layer. In England the Aylesbury is the best, as it grows fast, is very hardy and lays many eggs. The Pekin duck is much like it and is highly thought of in this country, where large numbers of white Pekins are raised for market. The duck of India is new to us but has won its way among duck raisers. It is the best of its kind as an egg layer, its harvest being over one hundred and fifty eggs a year. Its flesh is very delicate so that it is much liked for the table.
While the duck is not so widely kept as the hen, there are places where it is raised in large numbers. In the United States there are duck farms in which as many as twenty thousand birds a year are grown. There are no farms like this in Europe, though in some countries ducks are raised in great multitudes. These are not allowed to grow old, being sent to market when eight to twelve months of age. They pay better when sold at this age, for after that new feathers begin to grow and buyers do not want them.
If we turn now to the Goose, we find it a swimmer like the duck, but larger in size and with a much longer neck. It belongs to the duck family, but does not eat animal food like the duck. It gets a good living off of grass and this makes it cheap and easy to raise. In Russia, where geese are kept in large numbers, the goose girl leads her flock every morning to the fields, lets them feed during the day, and brings them home at night to the village. The goslings are given some ground grain for a few weeks, and then are left to feed themselves.
An Assault by Hungry Geese
The goose, like the duck, has largely gone out of the business of egg hatching, turkeys or large fowls being used to sit on the eggs. They are neither good hatchers nor good layers, the best breeds rarely giving more than thirty eggs a year. But they are hardy and healthy and do not die off like young chickens. They can bear cold easily, and though a shelter is made for them in winter, they always sleep in the open air in the summer.
The goose is a strong bird and can strike a hard blow with its wing. In trying to catch them the keeper must be careful, for they are able to break his arm with a blow and have done so more than once. But they are good watchers for the farm. They wake very easily, and if a stranger comes upon the farm in the night they make noise enough to arouse the whole household.
This habit has given the goose a place in history. The Romans of old kept a number of geese in the temple of Juno on the hill where stood the Capitol. The goose was sacred to that goddess and it was the custom to keep a flock in her temples. One night a party of Gauls, who had laid siege to the city of Rome, found a narrow path up the steep hill and were almost at the top when the sacred geese heard them and made so loud a cackling that the garrison woke up and rushed out. Here the Gauls who had reached the top were flung down the steep hill, stones were thrown down on those that followed, and the Capitol was saved.
One of the best known breeds of geese is that of the Giant goose of Toulouse, usually about sixteen pounds but sometimes twenty-four pounds in weight. The Embden goose is still larger. The Giant goose of Italy is the only good layer, and yields about sixty eggs a year. In Germany and some other countries geese are driven for days along the roads, in flocks of several hundred. They are not easily tired and are good travellers, so that this is the cheapest way to get them to market.
As for the uses to which the goose is put, these are simply for food and for their feathers and quills, which are plucked several times a year. The fine, soft feathers are of much value for pillows and beds, and before the steel pen was invented goose quills were used all over Europe and America to make into pens.
Gander Hissing at an Enemy
In England the goose is often roasted for the Christmas dinner, as the turkey is with us, and the gizzards, heads and legs are sold in sets, under the name of "giblets," to be used for pies. Goose liver has long been a dainty dish. It is made in Strasburg to grow very large by keeping the geese in a room at high temperature. In this state it is sold as a great delicacy under the French name of pâté de foie gras ("pasty of fat liver").