Duck Quotes

“All duck flight is worth observing: it is something humans admire, perhaps because that movement is naturally denied to us, but also because of its sociability and its evident patterning, forming recognizable shapes like letters against the sky.”
― Victoria de Rijke, Duck

“In Sergei Prokofiev’s 1936 competition Peter and the Wolf, the little bird looked down at the duck: ‘What kind of bird are you if you can’t fly?’ said he. To this the duck replied: ‘What kind of bird are you if you can’t swim?’ and dived into the pond.”
― Victoria de Rijke, Duck

“In terms of habitat, ducks can be found anywhere that is wet.”
― Victoria de Rijke, Duck

“A method of identifying and distinguishing between ducks, swans, and geese is argued for in Eykman’s European Anatidae by size, form or colour of bill and feathering near the tail. The sexes differ little in swans and geese but widely in ducks: in particular, males have more conspicuous plumage.”
― Victoria de Rijke, Duck

“Victoria caves in Naracoorte (an Aboriginal word for “large waterhole”) have provided possible duck fossil remains. The latest idea, based on details of the skull, is that they evolved early in the lineage that includes waterfowl. Because of its large skull, some possible carnivorous habits and its probably waterfowl relationships, Bullockornis and/or Dromornis stirtoni has been nicknamed “the demon duck of doom”.”
― Victoria de Rijke, Duck

“In the Rig-Veda, the most ancient of Indian religious texts, a duck lays golden eggs on a nest built on the head of a thief, and the Finnish epic Kalevala describes a duck building a nest on the body of Ilmator (daughter of air) as she lies in the sea. The duck lays eggs that fall and crack open, the yolk forming earth and the rest the heavens, sun, moon, stars, and the clouds.”
― Victoria de Rijke, Duck

“For the Hebrews and many other cultures, duck is associated with immortality.”
― Victoria de Rijke, Duck

“In Yoruba creation myth the world began as marsh full of waterfowl, and for the Magyars (the inhabitants of present-day Hungary) the sun god Magyar turned himself into a diving duck and made humans out of sand and seedy much from the ocean floor.”
― Victoria de Rijke, Duck

“Another tale relates how the Iroquois hero Hiawatha, traveling through Mohawk territory, came to the edge of a great lake. As he was wondering how to cross it, a huge flock of ducks descended on the lake and began to drink the water. When the ducks rose up again, the lake was dry, its bed covered in shells. From these shells Hiawatha made the first wampum beads and used them to unite the tribes in peace.”
― Victoria de Rijke, Duck