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.