Barbary Duck (1 Viewer)

[Andy Adcock]

I took my toddler to an inner City farm yesterday. Whilst there, looking at the various mongrol Ducks, one of the volunteers, sidled up and started bombing me with tid-bits of minutia including the fact that Barbary Duck is the name given to farmed, Muscovy Ducks, bred for eating, did not know that.

 

[janvanderbrugge]

Hello Andy and other admirers of this rather weird webbed creature,
for everyone's choice I give here the names which I gathered from sources in several languages, so you can see how ornithologists and citizen scientists always have been puzzled about these birds.
I can add a curious mistake which had occurred in the bird collection of a Dutch institute, not a school, but an organization which offers working shops for groups of pupils and receives them to get familiar with animals and biological matters, as an extension to the strict school program. In the collection was listed: "ei van Kaapse eend" (= egg of Cape duck). However, it is highly improbable that such a local institute would possess an egg of a Cape Teal; they only have mounted birds in glass cases and a couple of living Mandarin Ducks and a few chickens at their locality. Then I remembered that someone used a local name for the Muscovy Duck at a foray: Kaapse Eend. So that was the solution, the collection contained an egg of that species! I did not add it to the name collection below, because I never saw it written thus far.
There has been much confusion: musk (bisam) seems the right origin, although I do not know if this bird has a special odour; Moscow is out of order, I suppose, like most geographical links in the names, but these must have their origin in the places or regions where ornithologists or others saw this duck for the first time; however, Rayus' name Anas sylvestris brasiliensis is a good choice for the wild bird.
The generic name Cairina must have been taken from Caïro. There was quite a number of uncommon (wild and tame) ducks which explorers like Hasselquist (one of Linné sources) found in the Arab world in the first part of the 18th century or earlier.
Nowadays also cross-breed specimens of Muscovy Duck and Mallard are posted in birdfora, so the number of ugly ducks is growing; but I have also seen pictures of a French farm of Muscovy Ducks, where all the birds had a completely white plumage. Not attractive for us birders, it is like a farm of white turkeys, which I once saw in my own country. Don't know about the taste . . .
Enjoy, Jan van der Brugge

Cairina moschata (Anas moschata Linnaeus, Anas moschata J.F.Gmelin, Anas moschata Brisson, Anas moschata Latham, Moschatus moschatus Lesson, Carina moschata S.D.W., Tadorna moschata Swainson,
Cygnus moschatus Rüppell, Hyonetta moschata Sundevall, Anas sylvestris Brasiliensis Ray, Anas sylvestris Bewick, C.sylvestris Stephens, Anas maxima Gosse, Moscha carunculata, Anas Merianæ Shaw)
(Muscovy Duck, Muscovy, Musk Duck, Musky Duck, Barbary Duck [domesticated]
(Pato Criollo / Pato-do-mato)
(Muskuseend (Muskusloopeend) / Moschus-Ente, Moschusente / Canard musqué, Canard de Barbarie / Anatra muta)
[Le Canard musqué (Buffon, Histoire Naturelle Oiseaux, 9, p.162, pl.9 & Pl.Enlum. 989); (Cuvier, Règne Animal, I, p.537). Muscovy Duck (Albin, Birds, 3, pls. 97, 98); (Latham, Gen.Syn., 6, p.476; Linn.Trans. IV, p.113, pl.xiv, figs.5, 6; Syn.Sup. II, p.348); (Bewick, British Birds, II, p.320).
Common Musk-Duck (Stephens, Gen.Zool., 12, pt.2, p.79, for Cairina sylvestris). Musk Carin (S.D.W., The Analyst, III (14), Jan.1836, p.214, for Carina moschata). The Guiny-Duck, Muscovy-Duck. Muscovy Duck (Albin, Birds, 3, pl.97, 98. - Latham, Gen.Syn. 6.476 & Sup. ii. 348. - Bewick, Brit.Birds, ii. 320. - Anas Moschata (Caïrina of Fleming). (Joseph, Hist.Trinidad, 1838, p.61). Carunculated Musk-bird (Mus.Brookes, p.102, for Moscha carunculata).] [The Sudani duck (in dissertation of Egypt). Merian Duck. Anas Merianæ. (Latham, Gen.Hist. X, p.271)
Pato grande o real. (Azara, Apuntamientos, III, pp.410, 427) Pato criollo. Pato almizclado. Pato perulero. - Pato bravo. Pato do matto. Pato almizcarado. (Sp. - Port. names, Hist.Nat.Ducks, I, p.57)
Le Canard musqué (Buffon, Hist.Nat.Oiseaux 9.162. pl.9. - Buffon, Planches Enluminés, 989. - Cuvier, Règne Animal, i. 537). Canard d’Inde, Cane de Guinée ou de Barbarie. (Cuvier, Dict.sci.nat. 6, p.549)
Türckische Ente. Anas Indica s. Turcica. Canard d’Inde. (Frisch, pl.180) Die Bisamente. Anas moschata. (Meidinger, p.50; Poeppig) Türkische oder Bisamente. Anas moschata. (Gistl, Naturgesch.Thierreichs, p.96)
Die Bisamente, die Lybische Ente, Türkenente, Türkische Ente, Stummente, Barberie-Ente, Gansente, Flugente, Warzenente. (old vernacular German names)
Moskanteend. Anas Moschata. (Swinderen Index, 1822, p.22) Muskus Eend. Cairina moschata, L. Guiana, Brazilië. (List Artis p.87) Bizameend.]
Indian names: Cotua (Peru); Quayaiz (Colombia); Mairua, Oumeh (British Guiana) (Nat.Hist.Ducks, I, p.57)]
(vern. Pato real. Pato pinto. Solareno. Pato perulero. [Mexico, last name for domestic birds). Pato Criollo [Puerto Rico]. Pato real, Pato negro [Honduras]. Pato real [Venezuela, Bolivia]. Pato criollo, Pato real [Argentina].
Bragado, Ype guasu [Paraguay]. Pato-do-mato [Brasil, = wood duck]. Pato de Guiné [Islas Canarias].)

 

[Andy Adcock]

I wonder why 'Barbary' Duck, this refers to a region of Africa, not the Americas which is the natural range of wild Muscovy, think e.g Falcon, Partridge etc.

 

[jurek]

In the past centuries, imported exotic animals were often traded through local middlemen who had little idea where their goods come from, and confused faraway countries. A well known example is guinea pig, which is from South America, not Guinea in Africa.

 

[Mysticete]

I wonder why 'Barbary' Duck, this refers to a region of Africa, not the Americas which is the natural range of wild Muscovy, think e.g Falcon, Partridge etc.

Given the wild form's common name references Russia, makes perfect sense it's domestic name would be equally misleading...

 

[MJB]

Given the wild form's common name references Russia, makes perfect sense it's domestic name would be equally misleading...

Maybe there might be some kind of indirect logic to the English name. The Muscovy Company traces its roots to the Company of Merchant Adventurers to New Lands. It was an English trading company chartered in 1555. It was the first major chartered joint stock company, the precursor of the type of business that would soon flourish in England and finance its exploration of the world. In 1607 and 1608, the company sent Henry Hudson in two separate voyages in an attempt to find the Northeast Passage. Henry Hudson is better known for his efforts to discover the Northwest Passage, but it may be that other explorers financed by the Muscovy Company also were later exploring the Atlantic and Caribbean coasts, by dint of which the species was discovered.

Much more likely is that it was named casually as 'Musk Duck' from its carbuncled appearance. Particularly because it was meaty, it first was likely taken on board primarily as provender. Once taken to Europe as a trade item, the probability of a misheard description or a poorly-transcribed document resulted in the word 'musk' undergoing epenthesis into the more familiar (for the time) 'muscovy'. Just think how the written Spanish word 'naranja' was pronounced in English as 'norringe', hence 'a norringe' subsequently became 'an orange'...

That's my guess...
MJB

 

[janvanderbrugge]

I read Delia Todd's reaction to a question about recent observations of the Australian Musk Duck and thought it seemed right to connect this name to the Muscovy topic, to prevent any confusion of the Musk duo for our friends and visitors "down under"( I don't like the term, in a number of things we Europeans are down under).
The first part here is still linked to the Muscovy Duck, because I liked the phrase: "hyo + netta - swine + duck, for the bird's low way of living"! This is quite the opposite of the domestic duck race which in Dutch is called "loopeend" = walking duck, which are the upright walking "bebek" (Malay) of Dutch East Indies, guarded by an "eendenhoedster" (duck shepherdess) and kept for its eggs (it needs little water, but cannot flee easily from predators). I suppose the Australian species owes its name to the odour (musk or bisam).

Hyonetta (Carl J.) Sundevall, (Methodi Naturalis Avium Disponendarum) Tentamen, pt.II, June? 1873, 146. New name for Caïrina, Flem. From ὑς, a pig, + νηττα, a duck; from the bird’s low way of living. Type: Anas moschata Linn. [Richmond Index]

This leaves the question how "our" musk-bird is called in Australia. Here about their endemic:

Biziura lobata (Anas lobata Shaw, Anas lobatus Shaw, Hydrobates lobatus Temminck, Anas carunculata Vieillot, B.Novæ Hollandiæ Leach, B.novae hollandiae Stephens)
(Musk Duck, Australian Musk Duck, Lobed Duck / Malvasía de Papada)
(Australische Muskuseend, Australische Lobeend / Lappenente, Scharbenente / Erismature à barbillons, Canard à membrane)
[Lobated Stiff-tail, Australian lobated Stiff-tail (Mus.Brookes, pp.102 & 109, for Riziura lobata (sic)). Biziura Novæ Hollandiæ, Leach. - Anas lobata, Shaw. - Lobate Duck. (Catalogue Ashmolean Museum, p.64).
Musk Duck (Birds of Western Australia, p.39). Must Duck, Mould Goose, Diver, Diving Duck, Steamer. (Australian Faunal Directory) Canard caronculé. Anas lobata Shaw. (Cuvier, Dict.Sci.Nat., 6, p.387)]

Especially the Spanish name is intrigueing, because malvasía is also an obsolete "Dutch" name (in the spelling "malvezij") for some type of Spanish wine, must be something from the 16-17th century!
Well, enough confusion and digression for now, enjoy.
Jan van der Brugge