Читать книгу Natural and Artificial Duck Culture - James Rankin - Страница 23

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The Pekin is the only bird that will cover all these points. It has two slight defects—its extreme timidity and its heavy, coarse voice, which it does not scruple to use when congregated in large numbers. The former can be easily overcome by careful handling. But to off-set these defects the Pekin will not only produce the first eggs of the season, but by far the greatest number of any of the breeds, with one exception, the Indian Runner. They mature earlier, are more hardy and domestic in their habits, never wandering far, and always returning to the coops at night. They are not mischievous, and require less water than either of the other breeds.

My birds have for generations been bred in dry yards, with simply water to drink, and all desire for it for other purposes seems to have been bred out of them. When allowed their freedom in the fall, the flocks never visit the brook, fifteen or twenty rods distant, and when driven there occasionally for the purpose of purifying their feathers, get out again just as soon as possible. Indeed, after a water bath their feathers cling to their bodies, and they present the same bedraggled appearance that the old hen did many years ago after one had immersed her in a water-barrel to cure her propensity for sitting.

A wealthy New Yorker ordered a dozen of my best ducks, a year or two ago. In a few weeks he wrote that he wished to return them, as they did not answer his purpose; "for," said he, "I have an artificial lake on my lawn, near my piazza, and I wanted these ducks to disport in the water for the pleasure of my wife and children, and they will not go in the water at all unless I drive them in with a whip, and I have to stand guard over them all the time, as they get out the moment my back is turned." I wrote him in return that had I known he wanted the ducks for their aquatic performances, I should have recommended the common puddle duck, when he would have had as much trouble to get them out of the water as he had to get the Pekins in.