Chapter 23 Twenty-one ducks, geese and swans

fluffy friend ★About the swan In ancient legends, the swan is a sacrifice dedicated to Apollo, the sun god, and Aphrodite, the god of love.But more importantly, swans are also the final form of life of gods and legendary figures, or the source of elegant souls. Cygnus represents different characters among many different peoples.In Greek mythology, he was the son of Poseidon, the god of the sea, who was later killed by Achilles during the Trojan War; when his armor was taken away, he became a swan.It is also said that he was the son of Apollo, and later turned into a swan with his mother Thyria.Another theory is that Signas was the son of Ares, the god of war, and after being killed by Hercules, he turned into a swan.In another myth, he is the son of Sthenelus (Sthenelus), who was later turned into a swan by Apollo (Sthenelus also turned into a swan in the end).No matter which legend it is, no matter whether it is positive or negative, Signas is destined to become an infinitely elegant and beautiful white creature.

In other legends and traditions, Zeus disguised himself as a swan to get close to Leda.Later, Leda laid two eggs, one of which became Helen, the all-powerful beauty, and the other became a pair of twins, Castor and Polydeuces.The imagination of the Greeks was very vivid indeed. On the other hand, there are legends about the transformation of swans and people almost all over the world.In the familiar legend of the swan maiden (swan maiden, [Note 1]), the swan once incarnated as a human.This kind of story originated in Romania, passed through the Slavic world, and spread from far away places such as Ireland and Finland to Persia, Sri Lanka, China, Japan, Australia, Polynesia and Melanesia in the Pacific Ocean. ) and Indonesia.The same theme also appears in the Celtic (Note 2) and Teutonic (Note 3) traditions, as well as in East Africa, West Africa, Madagascar, and in One Thousand and One Night, which is especially common in Indian traditions.Furthermore, the theme appears in Ecuadorian legends, Guyanese mythology, and perhaps throughout South America.In parts of Ireland and Scotland, swans are traditionally endowed with mystical qualities.

[Note 1] The heroine in folk tales around the world.The legend mainly describes a beautiful maiden who can transform people into swans with the help of some magical object such as a feathered shawl, ring or chain.A young man discovers this magical item, hides it, and marries the swan maiden.Later, the girl finally found the object and changed back into the shape of a swan.There is another version of the story, in which the maiden has some kind of taboo with her lover, and when he violates it, she turns back into a swan. 【Note 2】The Celts are a group of people who are combined with a common Indo-European language and cultural heritage.Distributed throughout Europe from the second millennium BC to about the first century BC, including the Gauls, Galatians, and Belizes, as well as the ancestors of today's Irish, Scots, and Welsh .

[Note 3] The Teutons, one of the Germanic nations, allied with the Cimbri, invaded northern Italy from 101 to 102 BC, but were defeated by the Romans.The adjective Teutonic refers generally to the Germanic peoples and to the Indo-European language family including the Germanic languages. The connection between the swan and the destiny of man, and its use as another abode for the human soul, may go back to cave dwellings.In some parts of Siberia it is believed that whoever kills a swan will soon fall ill and die.Harming swans is taboo in the Hebrides and some parts of Ireland.Therefore, it is not surprising that Tchaikovsky would compose the most popular of all ballets, Swan Lake; inspiration.

Ironically, although the swan is often regarded as a symbol of elegance and beauty, when it comes to food, it is obviously far inferior to ducks or geese.I've never (and don't want to) try swan meat, but keep hearing people comment that it tastes like leather or is greasy.A swan out of water is not only not graceful at all, but even extremely aggressive.A few years ago, when I was living in East Hampton, New York, there was a native elder there who slaughtered a swan every year for his Thanksgiving meal.His body was found in a certain year with his face smashed, his clothes and the ground around his body strewn with feathers; he was said to have been attacked by a swan, and there was no doubt that the It was done by a cob for the defense of the domain and mate.

★The swan of swans Among the eight species of swans, including mute swan, trumpet swan, whooper swan, little swan, Bewick swan, black swan, black-necked swan and Coscoroba swan, the mute swan (also known as tumor swan) is the only one that can It can be said that the swans raised by humans are wild birds distributed in the northern half of Eurasia from Iceland to Siberia (they may also be considered wild birds at present), and they have been introduced to the Western Hemisphere and Australia by humans.Wherever domestic mute swans are kept, we can safely assume that some have returned to the wild, and that these wild or rewilded mute swans are almost identical to those in captivity.

Are swans considered one of the animals raised by humans?Maybe, but the answer stops there.Perhaps as a result of inbreeding, there sometimes arise melanin-deficient forms like the Polish swan, whose cygnets are white instead of gray, and the legs and feet are gray when juvenile and remain so. color without turning black.They may be a new, unique breed, or simply a variation in certain flocks.However, even if humans did domesticate swans, they are still free to come and go, and live a semi-wild life.As for the identification of swans, it began around AD 1230. Humans have been keeping swans since at least the heyday of Greece.In the tenth century, people in England had already started to raise swans; in England, the laws and regulations on raising swans were very perfect, especially in England.The person who takes care of the swans is called a swanherd; the special position of taking care of the king's swans dates back to at least 1361, when Edward III (Note) appointed Thomas ．De.Rosham took on this task.In the late 1400s AD, the privilege of having swans became nobles and those who were endowed with special rights by the king; and the king used swan meat as food.Currently, the swans of the British royal family still have imprints on their beaks to identify them before they are mature.The place where the house swans are kept is called the swan pool, also known as the swan house.Breeding swans is an ancient and well-established tradition, and breeders have their own vocabulary.

【Note】From 1312 to 1377 AD, the King of England actively fought for the succession to the French throne, which led to the famous Hundred Years' War. The current ownership of the swan on the Thames belongs to the queen, and the dyers union and wine merchants union.The marking ceremony of the cygnets is as spectacular as the changing of the guard in front of Buckingham Palace.Like so many other events involving the royal family that take place in England, the swans on the Thames, and all that goes with them, make for a big tourism boom. Mute swans are now a very common part of the North American landscape, on America's rivers, lakes, ponds, or mingling with dense swarms of swans in the sky.We cannot trace how long ago any flock of swans returned to the wild, but the escapees have long since ceased to require human intervention.Since their ancestors are thought to have been domesticated by humans, they can only be considered feral rather than wild swans.However, is it considered livestock, or is it just raised and used by humans?In these two definitions, the positioning of swans is ambiguous, but traditionally, they are regarded as a kind of poultry whether they are in captivity or in the wild.As for the purpose of the swan, it is mainly for people to watch and take pictures, and it is not very useful.

★ duck About 115 species of birds in the family Anatidae are considered ducks, and other birds in this large bird family are geese and swans.However, the distinction between some of these species as ducks or geese is not so clear. Humans have hunted wild ducks since a long time ago.Most mallards nest on the ground, so their young are easy to catch, and mallards during moulting are easy targets for humans, who are fast and accurate at throwing stones.Humans first threw sticks, then bows and arrows, and finally shotguns, and duck hunting entered a new era.In addition, humans also use nets and traps to catch wild ducks, and the aborigines of the New World have developed a very sophisticated bait.

Today, there is a quasi-religious enthusiasm for duck hunting with legally licensed weapons such as often very expensive shotguns.Shooting a mallard in repose is a taboo.The seasonal long-distance migration of wild ducks to survive the cold winter is also the season when people hunt wild ducks.Later, duck hunting evolved into a rite of passage in some areas; people joined different societies, donned special clothes, and went hunting with their favorite dogs.The weather is often harsh when hunting ducks, and if you can't stand the cold and wet, you haven't experienced it.In other places, duck hunting was a necessity rather than a sport, and people hunted wild ducks as best they could.Many varieties of wild duck are highly regarded.

Humans usually try to place their homes near water sources, and the reasons are self-evident.Early inhabitants of the seashore or river may have been known to catch wild ducks and stock them in simple pens.It is always easier to catch one of these ducks in pen than in the wild. The breeding or even breeding of wild ducks by humans may date back to Mesopotamia; however, from the figurines found there, it is really difficult to distinguish whether it is a duck or a goose.The Egyptians hunted wild ducks, but evidently did not keep them, nor did the Greeks, it seems, and the Romans kept wild ducks in a type of enclosure called nessotrophia; It is not clear whether they are raising wild ducks or domestic ducks.The Germans may have already raised wild ducks, let alone the Chinese.While we can't pinpoint the date and location, the ducks, which are currently beloved in China, are clearly of a very old lineage. As far as we know, all domestic ducks raised by people are descendants of mallard ducks, and only Muscovy ducks are descendants of wild Muscovy ducks.The mallard's range ranges from Alaska to Mexico, and from North Africa to India, China and Borneo.Muscovy ducks are distributed from Mexico to Argentina.However, it is a mystery why only these two species of mallards are kept by humans out of at least one hundred species of ducks that humans have ever captured. The domestic ducks currently raised in the United States are almost all fast-growing white Peking ducks. They were first introduced from China to North America in 1873. At that time, people introduced 14 individuals, which drove the duck industry in the United States. Today, the United States has bred them into domestic ducks that can be slaughtered in less than two months, which shows how high their feed conversion rate is.Duck farming is already a very important industry in the United States, but compared with chickens or even turkeys, duck farming is far inferior to the first two industries in terms of quantity and economic value.In parts of Europe and Asia, people eat duck more often.They are often kept in farm yards and are highly regarded accessory food animals.They are very friendly and gentle, but very protective of their young.Why Donald Duck, the most famous duck in the world, is so irritable is quite puzzling. ★Goose There are at least twenty-eight species of geese in the family Anatidae.With the exception of Antarctica, they are found on every continent in the world and on a large number of islands, some of which are very remote.There are still other breeds whose classification falls between the common names of duck and goose, and the difference is not so sharp as we generally think. Humans have been keeping geese and geese since at least the Neolithic age.Gray geese are the most domesticated species, and their range must be as wide as ever, from northern and central Europe and eastwards to northeastern China and Mongolia, where they can still find habitat.They are powerful, long-distance migratory birds and are familiar cloud seasonals in Crete, Egypt, and many other cultures.The location where humans raise gray geese may be in their breeding area, and the possibility in southeastern Europe is higher than that in southwestern Europe.However, we still don't know when gray geese changed from easy-to-follow pen birds to actual poultry. It is a little strange that the Greeks kept geese and geese, but they probably did not use them for food.The goose was a very competent guard, and was extremely aggressive when guarding the field, a likable quality then and now that must have been loved by the Romans as well.In addition, the Romans who practiced militarism also appreciated the feathers of geese and geese. They used the feathers of geese and geese for decoration, but what they liked most was that the feathers of geese could be used to make very good arrows.The Romans also loved geese and geese as food, and foie gras as a delicacy.This has not changed much until now. Goose fat is known in many ancient pharmacopoeias as lard or goose lard.In the time of Pliny the gray goose, especially those brought to Rome from the Germanic regions, had been bred as a snow-white bird.White geese are more likable than geese with dark plumage from other parts of Europe. Along the banks of the Nile, gray geese are housed together with their white-fronted geese.These two geese, and perhaps others, are kept for different purposes, some as pets or food animals, some for feathers, and some for their watchdog-like abilities And feed them.In some ceremonies, they are also designated sacrifices. The Chinese also kept another species of goose, which is now sometimes called Hongyan or the original goose, which is also used to refer to the wild type of this domestic goose.The most popular breeds of domestic goose currently in the United States are the Toulouse, Embuton, African and Chinese geese.Gray geese are now considered a special kind of bird and are kept in pairs as pets.The Toulouse goose is native to the south of France and is the poultry version of the gray goose. They are the largest domestic species. The gander can weigh up to 26 pounds (about 11.8 kilograms), which is amazing.Embuton geese are the first geese raised in the New World. They were bred from gray geese in Hanover, but they were once called Bremen geese because they originally came from Bremen, Germany.Prior to this, there was an Old English breed in the United States called the Pilgrim, which was also descended from gray geese. African geese may have originated in India, and they were bred by crossing Chinese geese and gray geese.Snow-white Chinese geese, by far the most common breed on U.S. farms, were originally bred in China.Chinese geese are special because of the famous wart on their heads.Canada geese, favored by waterfowl hunters, are as easy to manage as domestic geese, though they are not as tasty as other offspring of gray geese.The V-shaped formation of Canada geese during their long-distance migration across North America is a magnificent natural landscape. Geese and geese are very easy to domesticate, and after domestication, they are easy to raise.If they are brought back from their roost or nest floating in shallow water to raise them unhatched (if not eaten) or when they are newborn, they are very impressed with the creatures at first sight, and Followed all the time.Humans can drive or herd geese without the assistance of dogs.Geese and geese are obviously happy to be with people, at least they have some level of interest in human daily life, so it is natural for them to be close to human dwellings.Even the current wild geese, when they see domestic geese on the ground from the air, will choose to land near domestic geese, and some of them will even mate with domestic geese. In addition to the following two characteristics, geese are actually good pets.The first is that they are natural toubobs, and will overpower them, whether they are humans or dogs, if they are not given the upper hand in the first place.To prevent children from falling victim to these toubob, be sure to teach children how to intimidate them with sound and gestures (just doing these actions is enough).This is actually relatively easy to fix, the second trait is not so easy, at least for those free-roaming geese.These large birds require large amounts of feed and forage, and digest food surprisingly quickly.Once geese come knocking on your windows, in as little as fifteen minutes, your back porch can become a goose droppings minefield.Geese that are not in pens, while they can be quite desirable as pets and want to yell at or interact with humans whenever they get the chance, are unfortunately also very dirty animal.But with a water pipe, they can still be lovable and happy with us.