ABSTRACT

Varies much in colour and in proportions, and differs in instincts and disposition from the wild duck. There are several sub-breeds: (1) The Aylesbury, of great size, white, with pale-yellow beak and legs; abdominal dermal sack largely developed. (2) The Rouen, of great size, coloured like the wild duck, with green or mottled beak; dermal sack largely developed. (3) Tufted Duck, with a large top-knot of fine downy feathers, supported on a fleshy mass, with the skull perforated beneath. The topknot in a duck which I imported from Holland was two and a half inches in diameter. (4) Labrador (or Canadian, or Buenos Ayres, or East Indian); plumage entirely black; beak broader, relatively to its length, than in the wild duck; eggs slightly tinted with black. This sub-breed perhaps ought to be ranked as a breed; it includes two subvarieties, one as large as the common domestic duck, which I have kept alive, and the other smaller and often capable of flight. 1 I presume it is this

1 Poultry Chronicle (1854), vol. ii, p. 91, and vol. i, p. 330.