Indian Runner duck

a pair of Runner Ducks

Indian Runners are an unusual breed of domestic duck. They stand erect like penguins and, rather than waddle, they run. The females lay typically 150-200 eggs a year, or more depending whether they are from exhibition or utility strains. They were found on the Indonesian Islands of Lombok, Java and Bali where they were ‘walked’ to market and sold as egg-layers or for meat. These ducks do not fly and only rarely form nests and incubate their own eggs. They run or walk, often dropping their eggs wherever they happen to be. Duck-breeders need to house their birds over night or be extremely vigilant in picking up the eggs before the magpies take them. Keeping the birds in shed until well after dawn is probably the best solution.

They vary in weight between 1.4 and 2.3 kg (3-4 ½ lbs). Their height (from crown to tail tip) ranges from 50cm (20 inches) in small females to about 66cm (26 inches) in the taller males. The eggs are often greenish white in colour, but these too vary.

Indian Runners love foraging. They also like swimming in ponds and streams, but they are likely to be preoccupied in running around grassy meadows looking for worms, slugs, even catching flies. They appreciate open spaces but are happy in gardens from which they cannot fly and where they make much less noise than Call Ducks. Only the females quack. All drakes are limited to a hoarse whisper. Runners eat less in the way of grain and pellet supplement than big table ducks. They should, of course be given calcium and protein-rich food, especially the ducks during the extensive laying season.

Origins of the Breed

The Indian Runner Duck is a domesticated mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)¹ originally from the Far East. The Runner became popular in Europe and America as an egg-laying variety towards the end of the nineteenth century largely as a result of an undated pamphlet called The India Runner: its History and Description published by John Donald of Wigton between 1885² and 1890³ . Donald describes the pied variety and gives the popular story of the importation into Cumbria (NW England) by a sea captain some fifty years earlier.

The breed is unusual not only for its high egg production but also for its upright stance and variety of colour genes, some of which are seen in seventeenth century Dutch paintings⁴ . Other references⁵ to such domestic ducks use the names ‘Penguin Ducks’ and ‘Baly Soldiers’. Harrison Weir’s Our Poultry (1902) describes the Penguin Ducks belonging to Mr Edward Cross in the Surrey Zoological Gardens between 1837-38. These may well have been imported by the 13th Earl of Derby⁶ . Darwin describes them (1868) as having elongated ‘femur and meta-tarsi’, contrary to Tegetmeier’s assertions⁷ .

The Cumbrian importations, according to Matthew Smith in 1923⁸ , included completely Fawn Runners and completely White Runners as well as the pied (Fawn-and-white and Grey-and-white) varieties. In an attempt to import fresh blood-lines, the most successful achievement was by Joseph Walton between 1908 and 1909. A detailed account of these ventures can be found in Coutts (1927) and Ashton (2002). Walton shipped in birds from Lombok and Java, revolutionizing the breeding stock which, according to Donald, had become badly mixed with local birds⁹ . Further importations by Miss Chisholm and Miss Davidson in 1924 and 1926¹⁰ continued to revive the breed.

Development

Pure breed enthusiasts, exhibitors and show judges wanted to establish standard descriptions. Standards were drawn up in America (1898) and England (1901) for the pied colour varieties. These were largely the same until 1915 when the two countries diverged. The American Poultry Association chose a variety with blue in the genotype whilst the English Poultry Club Standard kept to the pure form described by Donald in his original pamphlet. Other colours followed making use of black genes brought in by some of Walton’s birds. These were to produce Black, Chocolate and Cumberland Blue. Later were developed the Mallard, Trout, Blue Trout and Apricot Trout versions¹¹ . A full account of the influence of the Indian Runner Duck Club (founded in 1906), particularly the input by John Donald, Joseph Walton, Dr J.A. Coutts and Matthew Smith, can be found in Ashton (2002).

The most profound impact of the Indian Runners was on the development of the modern ‘light duck’ breeds. Before 1900 most ducks were bred for the table. Aylesbury and Rouen Ducks were famous throughout the nineteenth century, and these were supplemented or replaced, after 1873-4, by importation from China of the Pekin Duck. As soon as the Indian Runners became fashionable, there developed a demand for egg-layers and general purpose breeds. Using Runners crossed to Rouens, Ayesburys and Cayugas (the large black American breed), William Cook produced his famous Orpington ducks (advertised in 1898). Mrs Campbell crossed her Fawn-and-white Runner Duck to a Rouen drake to create the Campbell ducks. Later she introduced wild mallard blood and managed to create the most prolific egg-layer, the Khaki Campbell (announced in 1901). Other breeds followed, some of which emerged as direct mutations of the Khaki Campbell, along with crosses back to Indian Runners, the most famous being the Abacot Ranger (known in Germany as the Streicher) and the Welsh Harlequin.

Colour Breeding

Indian Runner Ducks and Pekins brought in unusual plumage colour mutations. These included the dusky and restricted mallard genes, light phase, harlequin phase, blue and brown dilutions, as well as the famous pied varieties named by the geneticist F.M. Lancaster¹² as the ‘Runner pattern’. Much of the proliferation of new colour varieties in breeds of domestic duck begins with the importation of these oriental ducks. Original research by R.G. Jaap (1930s) and F. M. Lancaster has allowed breeders to understand the effect of genotypes in managing and creating colour varieties. Simplified information can be found in writings by Dave Holderread, and Mike and Chris Ashton¹³ .

Foot Notes

¹ Charles Darwin, The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, Second Edition. Vol. 1, 1868

² Edward Brown, Poultry Breeding and Production, Vol. 3, 1929

³ J.A.Coutts, The Indian Runner Duck, 1927

⁴ By the d’Hondecoeter family and others. See the Indian Runner Duck Association web-site: [[1]]

⁵ By Darwin (1868), Zollinger (Journal of the Indian Archipelago, 1851) and Wallace (The Malay Archipelago, 1856 note)

⁶ By Wolfgang Rudolph, quoted in Ashton The Indian Runner Duck: a Historical Guide (2002)

⁷ Tegetmeier, The Poultry Book (1867), which emphasizes the ‘extreme shortness of the femora’.

⁸ In Coutts (1927)

⁹ John Donald, The India Runner: its History and Description (1885-90): ‘very few of the original type are now to be found.

¹⁰ See Ashton (2002) pp.105-122.

¹¹ Detailed descriptions of these are to be found in British Waterfowl Standards (BWA 2008). Slightly different names and descriptions can be found in American and German Standards.

¹² F.M.Lancaster, The inheritance of plumage colour in the common duck ((1963), and ‘Mutations and major variants in domestic ducks’ in Poultry Breeding and Genetics edited by R.D.Crawford (1990)

¹³ Storey’s Guide to Raising Ducks (Holderread, 2001); The Domestic Duck (2001) and Colour Breeding in Domestic Ducks (2007) (C. and M. Ashton)

See also

• List of duck breeds

External links

Media related to Indian Runner Ducks at Wikimedia Commons

• British Indian Runner Duck Association
• Indian Runner Ducks
• A website designed to encourage others to enjoy keeping Indian Runner ducks.