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Silver Call female

THE early half of the twentieth century was ground-breaking for ducks in the UK. Ducks were really popular in the early decades, with Indian Runners fetching astronomical prices compared with average earnings. Even annual membership of the Utility Duck Club in 1915 cost five shillings - perhaps a quarter of a working man's weekly wage. £1 = 20 shillings People wrangled over the Runners more than anything else, and it was these birds that were used to produce the other light breeds: Campbells, Magpies, Orpingtons, Abacot Rangers and later on, the Welsh Harlequin. All made their mark as egg layers. These breeds from the Runner were all compared, measured, trap nested, recorded - and then the obsession with duck eggs suddenly disappeared. Luckily for the duck, the hen took her place in that invention, the battery cage.

What did that mean for Call ducks in the early 1900s? They were, of course, ignored.

They were of no economic use, and of no value in the Depression, or in the two World Wars when food was scarce. Pure breeds were a luxury - at least on the surface - for they also have a hidden importance in their gene pools.

Calls did survive in country wildfowl collections, possibly associated with decoys on country estates as well. They were occasionally advertised in The Feathered World between 1900 and 1910, and then disappeared. Only Reginald Appleyard mentioned them in his articles in the 1930s; they were not often in the show pens, where the much more brightly coloured wildfowl, such as Mandarins and Carolinas, appeared instead.

Calls were not recorded even in the Standards books between 1901 and 1930, but survive they did. Appleyard kept then in white and 'mallard' and other breeders in Eastern England acquired them from the 1960s. The difference now was that these birds were newly imported from Holland.

These Dutch birds were different. They were more like our modern bathtub ducks. Their other difference was colour. The Silver Call (with the same colour and markings as the newly 'created' Abacot Ranger) was invented in Holland in the 1920s, and eventually they came over to the UK together with Blue Fawn, Black Bibbed and Pied. As one can see in the Melchior d'Hondecoeter painting from the 1600s, (Smallholder, April 2007) some of these colours and patterns were already there in European farmyard ducks. Cross-breed them through several generations with the little ducks, and these colours could also be transferred to the Call.

These Dutch Calls became more popular, and made it back to the UK Standards by 1954 and 1971, with just a brief mention as the Decoy in White and Brown (Mallard). Only by 1982 did the new colour descriptions start.

Pied, Blue Fawn and Silver were added and, with the Rare Breeds auction at Stoneleigh well established by then, the birds never looked back. Imports in the late 1970s from the USA also added new interest, for the birds were of a very good type.

The Yellow Belly Call. A most striking colour which, in the female, bears a similarity to the Chiloe Widgeon

The Rare Breeds Survival Trust organised their annual sale at the Royal Show ground at Stoneleigh each year. This sale was a wonderful event with rare breeds of cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and poultry. The trade stands were colourful and extensive, with specialist producers and booksellers adding even more interest to the day.

The British Waterfowl Association www.waterfowl.org.uk ran the Waterfowl section, selling both Wildfowl and Domesticated Waterfowl. When this began in 1976, it was a very important forum for breeders to meet and exchange new strains.

Domesticated breeds in particular had become pretty rare during World War II, and waterfowl had never really recovered. Import initiatives by Christopher Marler and the BWA meant that 'new blood' in African geese, American Buffs, Black East Indies, Rouen, Toulouse and Call ducks all added a bit of pep to the UK Stock.

As breeders know, one cannot inbreed restricted lines for ever; 'new blood' is needed to keep breeds going when the gene pool has fallen to a low point. Unfortunately for all the rare breeds, the Royal Show Ground became too posh. Restructuring of the accommodation meant more expense, and the new rental exceeded what an agricultural event could afford to pay. It is a great pity that some traditional show grounds, such as those in the Midlands which can command high prices for other events, have now priced themselves out of their original agricultural function.

Accessibility has meant that more can be gained from garden, antique and motoring events, often leaving the agricultural pursuits as the poor relatives on the fringe.

Fortunately, exchange of birds has now become easier within the EU, so breeders have often turned to the Continent for new stock. And some new colours have still crept in from the USA, adding interesting new colour genes to the UK birds.

Original Colours
By 'original colours', I mean the colours which arrived from Holland and were in the European duck gene pool. These colour mutations may well have arrived with the Indian Runner from the Far East even as early as the 1600s. This includes the pied (Runner) gene, for example, also now seen in the Pied Call.

Bibbed and Blue genes, also in the Hook Bill and Blue Swedish ducks, also affected Call ducks colours. And somehow the silver gene, which produced the Abacot Ranger, arrived on Holland's waterways in the 1920s as well.

Quite early on, the little Call ducks were mimicking the colours of the big ducks. The Mallard was the same as the Rouen, and Silver the same as the Abacot.

Not content with that, the ducks, all on their own, have recently produced a new colour mutation on Holland's canals. As far as the Dutch know, ducks in the style of the Yellow Belly 'arrived' in the wild mallard and then crossed with the Call. The colour mutation itself is particularly beautiful in the females.

Graham Barnard, who also keeps wildfowl, notes the striking similarity between the Chiloe widgeon and the Yellow Belly female. Was the yellow belly a spontaneous colour mutation in the mallard? Or was there an accidental cross between a wild mallard and a Chiloe widgeon from a wildfowl collection? No one may ever know; this is just another mystery surrounding the origin of these duck colours!

Wild Cards
Call duck colours were fairly simple until the 1990s. Everyone knew where they stood.

Then things changed. Birds which had been sourced in the USA introduced new colour genes. The Call is popular in the USA too, and perhaps breeders are more adventurous there.

Some interesting crosses with other ducks must have been made because Calls arrived with brown genes and 'light phase' and 'mallard restricted' genes. These are colour mutations which belong to the South East Asian duck population and the Indian Runner.

Suddenly the little Call duck began to acquire not just the European duck genes, but the colours of ducks from all over the world.

We now have Khaki Call ducks with brown genes (originally from the Fawn Indian Runner) and Chocolate Calls (brown with black). There are 'Saxony' Calls with the light phase gene found in the Runner, and Butterscotch Calls which mimic our mallard restricted Silver Appleyards. And all this has happened largely in the space of the last 10 years.

Calls can now do anything the big ducks do now. As long as you can work it out!

Find out more information about Call ducks from the Call Duck Association stand which will be with the Indian Runner Duck Association at the Smallholder event at Builth Wells in May. See www.callducks.net for more info on Call ducks.

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