Duck and Goose, Domesticated
Along with swans, ducks and geese belong to the Anatidae family of large waterbirds characterized by webbed feet. Ducks differ from geese in having shorter necks and legs, but both are at home on lakes and ponds; geese commonly graze on grassland even at some distance from water.
The mallard (Anas platyrhyncos, about 60 centimeters long) was domesticated in Eurasia and was the ancestor of most domestic breeds of duck worldwide; today wild mallards live throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Ducks were domesticated in China probably as early as the seventh millennium BCE; there are ten native species in that country. From northern China and Japan came the small Mandarin ducks (Dendronessa galericulata), first introduced to Europe in 1830. The goose was also domesticated in China from the Chinese, or swan, goose (Cygnopsis cygnoides), the largest living goose, today native to Siberia and eastern Mongolia.
Both ducks and geese are farmed for their meat and eggs, and sometimes their down. Centuries ago, the Chinese had invented incubators made of pottery that were capable of hatching a thousand eggs.
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