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My
friend Eric Lyne on his Farrago, wrote on ducks. We have been
trying to interest some of the Jagnaanons to raise ducks but
they have something against those birds. They say they are
unsanitary because they dip their noses - er bills just anywhere
and slurp in just anything. Anyway, ducks are just finicky
like a chicken or turkey but since it is a water bird without
clean ponds to operate in, they have to be contented with
any muck available. Give it a clean pond and it will bathe
or swim anytime more often than some whom we know who takes
a bath only on religious or public holidays.
The
ducks found here are mostly Muscovy, the large, wide-bodied
black or white or black and white ducks. They are raised self
supporting so they look for bodies of water any water, clean,
dirty or in between if there is such, to hunt for snails or
aquatic insects. They lay large, white eggs, some say it tastes
fishy but we think it is only in their minds. Sometimes, the
problem with those ducks is that they take to the air and
fly around. Some have a poor sense of direction that they
get lost. Since they do not discriminate on the. cleanliness
of their swimming pools, they are considered unsanitary that
they are eaten only by guys who are drunk enough to eat anything.
When
those ducks are raised without water in which to clean themselves,
they assume the avian equivalent of the taong grasa people
who abhor water.
However,
give them a clean body of water and regular feeding, they
will produce large eggs and good meat. A muscovy drake - that
is a male duck Mac, don't think it is another animal - cooked
in sweet tuba, a barbarian version of patotim, could find
its way to the upper class tables.
Those
ducks are hardy, less susceptible to avian diseases. They
are also fast growing, cute when young but acquire a comic
look when it matures. They also mature fast that after three
months, they will be ready for the table. Ducks make good
mothers, caring for broods as many as twenty. However, backyard
raisers say that one cannot mix raising ducks and chickens
as they may cause the elimination of each other's flock.
Someone
tried to raise a flock of domesticated Philippine mallard.
It looks like the wild duck, quacks and walks like a wild
duck and it is a wild duck that lost its powers of flight.
It went good for a time. However, if unsupervised, they laid
eggs anywhere. They do not brood or sit on it until hatched
and if there is no incubator, they cannot be father reproduced.
However, their meat is as tasty as the muscovy.
Visayans
have no specific name of the subspecies of domestic ducks.
To a Visayan, a duck is either a bibi, itik or pato. Any duck,
whether the muscovy, mallard or khaki Campbell, the brown
ducks of the Rizal duck poultries may be name as the Visayan
as either bibi, pato or itik. One time, we subjected our computer
operator, a Cebuano with a biblical name of Barsabas to a
test if he could be able to distinguish what from which. We
asked what was the difference between the itik, pato and bibi.
The
reply was; " ang itik bibi nga pato". We got confused
so we ask him to repeat his answer. He came back with; "bibi,
itik nga pato". To continue asking for clarification
would compound the confusion as Bars is becoming more confused.
This
is because Visayans are less exposed to the duck varieties
than the Tagalogs. To the Tagalogs, the bibi is the mucovy,
the itik is the domestic mallard or khaki Campbell, the balut
or penoy producer, while the pato is the wild duck usually
called patong bundok.
Well
anybody from the Ludabi can dispute this naming and come up
with definitions better than Bars's. They better be good with
their etymology since we have ours in good authority. We once
consulted Tikio Ababa, a Cebuano who was a Ludabi bigwig but
he too was confused. If Bars insist that the itik is bibi
nga pato, we say amen and alleluyah!
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