Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 06.djvu/565

* DUCHESNE. 493 DUCK. 1S03. and in ISii.i v;is ((iniiiiaiulant of the ex- pedition which conquered iladagascar. DUCHESNE, I'JTRE. See Hubert, Jacques DUCHESNOIS, dii'shAnw-i'. C.therine .Tosfi- rni.NE ( iiioi)irly K.iiix ) ( 1777-183.5 ]. A French actress, born at 8aint Saulvcs (Xord). She made her dobut at the Couu'die Frant.aise in Ra- cine's Pht'drc. 8he was received with enthnsiasni and for live years was the favorite of the Paris- ian public. Then the beautiful Mile. Georges ap- peared and the two actresses began an active rivahy which was taken up lv the press. The wife of the First Consul. .Josf])liine Beauharnais, took the part of JlUe. Duchesnois. and she was made a societaire in 1804. In 1832 she retired from the stage. The plays in which she created riiles are La mort dc Hriiri IV., by Legouve; Hector, by Luce de I.ancival; Mahomet II., by Baour-T.orniian; and L'lysse, by Lehnin. DUCHESS, The. See HrxGERFORu. il.iR- GARET. DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE. The subjeet of two noted paintings: one. by Sir .Joshua Reynolds, in the gallery at Althorp Park; the other, by Gainsborough, in the Xew British Insti- tution. London, stolen in 1876, but recovered in mn-i. DUCHESS OF MAL'FI, The. A tragedy by John Webster. Its plot is based on the secret marriage of the title-character with her steward and the fate forced upon her by the subsequent goadings of her pitiless family. The chief source of the^lay is one of Bandello's Xovelle. It was produced about 1612, printed in 1623, and is con- sidered the author's finest dramatic achievement. DUCHINSKI, du-Ken'ske. IIenryk Fraxcis- ZEK I ISlii-'.lo ). A Polish historian and ethnog- rapher, born in the Ukraine. He studied at the lyceuni of Berditcher, in 1848 assisted in found- ing the Societa Italo-Slava, and was for a time interpreter to Achmet Pasha, Prince of Kurdistan. He received naturalization papers from Switzerland for his services to science. His works, devoted t'hiefly to the exposition of the thesis that Poland and Russia are fundamentally different in origin and national character, in- clude Panslarism (18-54) ; The Beginnings of the History of Poland and of Other filaric Peoples (1858-63); and Arijan and Turanian Peoples (1864). DUCIS, di.i'se'. Jean Francois (1733-1816). A Fnncli dramatic poet, born in Versailles, chiefly noteworthy as an adapter to the French stace of .Shakespeare's Ilaynlct (1767); Ilomeo and .lulief (1772); Lear and Machrth (1783); and Othello (1792). He succeeded Voltaire in the French Academy (1770). His independent dramatic elTorts were failures, but his adap,- tations of English models paved the way for the more daring innovations of Lemercier and the Romantic Sehool. Dvicis wrote also negligi- ble poetry. His works were collected in 6 vols. (1827). His Hamlet, Macbeth, and two other plays are in Didot's Chcfs-d'rrurrcs tragiques (vol. 2). Consult: Jusserand, Shakespeare en France (Paris. 1898); and Lacroix, Histoire de Vinfluence de Shakespeare (Brussels, 1856). DUCK (AS. dtice, connected with OHG. tuh- han. '!er. tauchen, to dive). The ducks are a large and well-defined group of birds of the order Anseres (q.v. ) and the family Anatida". They are distinguisbeil from the swans and geese by having the tarsi sculellate in front and the sexes are unlike in color: ;ind they are sejiarated from the mergansers by the shape of the l)ill, which is broad and llattcned. The ducks are largely ani- mal feeders (insects, snails, frogs, fish, etc.), although some species are noted for their fondness for wild celery and some other vegetables. The legs are short and placed far back, so that ducks move with didiculty on land, and with the char- acteristic gait known as a 'waddle,' l)ut they are splenilid swimmers, and are noted for their pow- ers of diving and swimming under water. The neck is short as compared with geese or swans. There is a peculiar anatomical feature of the windpipe, consisting of a large dilatation of the trachea on each side at its bifurcation. The tongue is large and fleshy and very sensitive. The plumage is remarkably thick, soft, and com- pact. The wings are stiflf, strong, and jiointed, giving the power of rapid and vigorous (light, though the speed of wild ducks has probably Ijcen exaggerated. The tail is of variable shajjc and made up usually of 14 or 16 feathers. The oil- gland is always present and well developed, with two openings and crowned with a tuft of feathers. The ducks have been easily tamed, and many breeds are known which will be considered later by themselves. Wild Ducks. The ducks are easily divisible into two groups, one of which is usually spoken of as river-ducks ^Anatinw), and the other as sea-ducks [FuUgulinw) . The latter have an evident lobe or web on the hind toe. which is wanting in the river-ducks. These subfamilies are by no means confined to the bodies of water, which might be inferred by the names, for many of the sea-ducks are abundant on our large in- land lakes and rivers, while some of the river- dueks are common 'along shore.' The sea-ducks obtain their food principally by diving for it, sometimes descending, it is said, more than 150 feet ; they feed by day and pass the night at some distance from the shore. The river-ducks, on the other hand, feed more commonly at night and rarely dive for their food. l)ut obtain it in shal- low water by probing on the bottom. The river- ducks are seldom seen in flocks of more than fifty, while the sea-ducks often gather in enormous flocks. There are something like sixt.v-five or seventy species of river-duck known, occurring pretty gen- erally throughout the world, about a dozen being found in the Vnited States. The best known species is the common mallard (.lim.'! boschas), «hieh occurs in nearly all parts of the Xorthern Hemisphere and is undoubtedly the parent form of the domesticated duck. In the United States it is far more common in the interior than on the coasts: and it is rare in Xew F.ngland. where it is replaced by the dusky or black duck i.Xnas oh.<iCura). The latter is found tliroughout east- ern Xorth America and is the commonest river- duck of the X'ew England States. It is about the size of the mallard, but the general color is dusky brown and the sexes are nearly alike. The lining of the wings is white. The nest is on the ground, of weeds, grass, and feathers; the eggs arc eight to ten in number, dirty yellowisli drab. Like the other river-ducks, the black duck is fine game and