RUNNER DUCKS.*
ALL the people in the country—we mean all the residents in country houses and country villas and country cottages—are talking about ducks. The hens' bills, we understand, are being put quite out of joint, so far as the amateur henwives are concerned. Of course every one has known for years that ducks do not require water except, like the rest of us, to wash in and drink. Therefore any one who can keep hens can keep ducks. The public has always liked duck to eat. Before the Fens were drained wild duck was in East Anglia, at any rate, a very important article of diet. Our grandfathers brought down an immense supply with their fowling- pieces, but since the Fen country has largely disappeared under crops wild duck for the market has come mostly from abroad. Meanwhile the domestic duck has flourished and increased. Not many people, however, have kept ducks for the sake of their eggs. They were supposed to be " coarse," and altogether inferior to hens' eggs. The food shortage brought' them into fashion again, for, coarse or not, they are large. The strange thing is that with the new appetite for ducks' eggs has appeared a new duck about whom a little book has just been written—the Runner duck—a very different bird from the old farmhouse variety, and one who lays far better eggs. If this bird had not come from India in times of peace and been known—but not-well known—in this country for many decades, it would have seemed to be a production of the war. In appearance it suggests both the goose and the penguin, being of upright carriage and having a long neck. A " long, slim, reachy bird," says. Mr. Taylor, " of active habits." %he-description reminds us of many elderly people upon whom the rations have told some- what, but whose natural force is not yet abated. It forages far and wide to get its.own food, is hardy, impervious to cold, and as intelligent as a parrot. We very much wish that our author had given us some illustrations of this intelligence. We have talked lately to two keepers of " Runners " who had not noticed it, but perhaps they were too much set upon the new commercial qualities to observe their mental achievements. These duckslay white eggs, which in flavour cannot be distinguished from a hen's, while in size they much surpass them. Two hundred and fifty is not an excep- tional number for a duck to lay in a year, but if she only lays two hundred she has thus produced thirty-three pounds of nutritious food. We quote our author's computation of the extra profit to • Runner Ducks. By E. A. Taylor. London: Country Life Office' Sad Georg Ravines. 13s. ed. net.1
duck-keeper and consumer over -and. above what comes of the egg production of hens
" The standard, weight of a hen's egg is two ounces, or eight to the pound. They cost 2d. each to produce, or ls. 4d. per lb., and sell at 34,. each, or 2s, per lb. Ducks! eggs at six to the pound cost 2d. each, or Is. per lb., to produce and sell.at 3c1. each, or Is. 6d. per lb., to the public. Here is another way to look at this remarkable fact : when sold by number, as at present, eight ducks' eggs at 2d. each coat ls. 4d. per lb. to produce, the same se the hen's selling 14 8d. each-26. per lb. re •Uil • but' the consumer obtains-nearly six ounces more in eggs than when buying hens' eggs at the same price per. egg, It should not take the buying public long to realize this."
Like most very active persons, the Runner duck eats well, but if she has a free range she will find herself in a great part of her food. Slugs, chrysalides, and wireworme are kept in effective check by this useful creature, and her amazing egg production justifies her appetite, even if restricted premises make it impossible to allow of her working for her living.
We could not expect stolid nerves from such birds as these. They are very easily frightened.. The presence of a. dog alarms them, and while they are young, the present writer has heard from a duck-keeper (though the book before him does not quite bear this out), they seem afraid even of a feeder who has not handled them from the shell. Their imaginations would appear to be lively, and they are terrified of a light at night. On the other hand, they would seem to show courage in the face of their hereditary enemies. When disturbed by rats or stoats, we read, they form up like a (look of sheep and trample the marauder to death.
Many of their fine and useful qualities depend in a measure upon breeding, and can be enhanced by education. A drake is not fit to be chosen as a father, indeed he is fit for nothing but the table, unless his mother has laid two hundred and fifty eggs in one year. Even the well born must be well educated. Training is necessary to ensure active habits. It is a mistake, we are told, to feed the ducklings twice. in the same place, and food should be put as far from the water as possible. The drakes do not fight, so several can be safely kept in one flock. Runner ducks are " not reliable hatchers," and where possible it is well to secure the services of a " broody hen " when breeding is going on. Obviously certain romantic qualities are lost under this strictly commercial education. White or white-and-fawn seems to be the prevalent colouring for the best of these effective food producers. There are some black ones who are considered peculiarly suitable to small gardens in town areas, as they do not show the dirt. All breeding for " markings " is, how- ever, deprecated, as it lessens egg production, as also does in-and-in breeding,
War food suits Runners very well. They enjoy the wheat, oats, maize of better days when they can get them, but full dietaries for summer and winter are made out here comprising nothing that cannot now be obtained. " Soft foods, by-products, milling and brewing offals, waste, 8/c.," are readily eaten, but the list is too long to quote. If a dry bed, clean drinking-water, and shade—they are subject to sunstroke—are secured to them, few diseases seem to attack them, and they do not require the specially built houses which are generally provided for well-bred hens, but are quite happy to sleep or shelter in a water-tight shed of any sort.
The book ends with fifty negative and fifty positive directions, which are headed respectively " Do's " and " Don'ts" " for Duck- keepers." " Don't be unwillingto learn from those who know," should stop the mouths of cavilers. " Don't mate good ducks to a cheap drake," sounds a good rule. It is odd that it should be necessary to remind any sane person that every animal must be supplied with drinking-water, but it is necessary ; even in the case of cats and dogs it is sometimes forgotten. " Do try to make your egg-layers happy' and contented." This is a difficult injunction surely, and comprises the teaching of the whole book—but whoever reads it. through ought to be able to obey it. The ducks in the photographs wherewith Mr. Taylor illustrates his little monograph look very happy and contented, but not with the negative sleepy contentment which we associate with a squat, rounded figure on a pond. They look actively happy. There is something rather disturbing about them. Plainly they have come from over the waters to flutter the
henroosta.
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