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  • A mallard duck. Engraving by J. Kip, ca. 1690, after F. Barlow.
  • Like a duck to water... : but not for factory farmed birds... / Juliet Gellatley.
  • Like a duck to water... : but not for factory farmed birds... / Juliet Gellatley.
  • Like a duck to water... : but not for factory farmed birds... / Juliet Gellatley.
  • Like a duck to water... : but not for factory farmed birds... / Juliet Gellatley.
  • A duck and pelican with pond and other birds behind. Engraving by H. Le Roy.
  • An ornithorhynchus (duck billed platypus). Coloured etching by J. F. Cazenave after A.C. Vauthier.
  • Two men with guns about to shoot a duck on a pond without authorisation. Coloured etching.
  • Mallard duck both standing on a bank and swimming out from the shore. Chromolithograph after P. Smit.
  • Bufflehead duck (Charitonetta albeola): male and female. Reproduction of a painting by J. J. Audubon, ca. 1827.
  • Four heads of birds: a swan, a polyphemus, a wild duck and a pelican. Drawing, c. 1789.
  • Two quails and a duck on the edge of a lake or river with wheat. Process print after Tosa Mitsusada.
  • Birds on a river bank: teal, duck, cormorant, bittern, owl, hawk and pheasant. Etching by J. Griffier, ca. 1655, after F. Barlow.
  • A hunting dog is chasing a duck in the water which escaped from his mouth. Etching by E. Hacker after R. Ansdell.
  • Two physicians are reconciled by another, overseen by a duck-like parody of the Holy Ghost. Lithograph by F.E. Regamey after himself.
  • A hunting dog seizing a duck on the shallow end of a lake. Etching by J.B. Guélard, 1735 after J.B. Oudry.
  • Birds on common land outside a village: hen, cock, hawk, jay, muscovy duck, raven, cuckoo and hoopoe. Etching by F. Place after F. Barlow.
  • A well-dressed huntsman is accosted by a ragged boy proffering a bedraggled duck carcass. Coloured lithograph by A. Strassgschwandtner after himself, ca. 1860.
  • An angry huntsman kicks his dog and snatches a partly-eaten duck from its mouth. Coloured lithograph by A. Strassgschwandtner after himself, ca. 1860.
  • A horse has ridden through a doorway in an effort to stop, the rider has had to duck his head. Etching by H. Bunbury.
  • Various birds round a pond: peacock, crane, toucan, parrot, teal, gambo goose, mallard duck, pelican and bird of paradise. Etching by F. Place after F. Barlow.
  • A pharmacy: the pharmacist (a fox) tries to sell medicines to a customer in pain (a duck, accompanied by his wife). Painting by L.H. Choustrac, 1905.
  • A soldier with a pistol in his hand is looking over a wall at a small duck walking down the middle of the road. Process print after Lawson Wood.
  • Above, red-figured Greek bowl (skyphos) decorated with a woman holding a dish; below, detail of decoration showing a naked man holding a duck. Watercolour by A. Dahlsteen, 176- (?).
  • Rock tombs at Beni Hassan, Middle Egypt date from the Middle Kingdom dynasties XI (2060-1991 BCE) and XII (1991-1782 BCE) and rank among the most important monuments of Ancient Egypt. They were built for the dignitaries of Menat-Khufu, one of the oldest place names recorded in ancient Egypt. The tomb walls are decorated with mural paintings executed on rocky walls made smooth with plaster. These paintings are radidly deteriorating and most reproductions are from paintings of the originals. This painting, from the tomb of Khnumenhotep, the Mayor of Menat-Khufu, shows him using a large draw net to capture marsh fowl. The basic sources of animal protein for Ancient Egyptians were wild fowl and fish. A multitude of bird species inhabited the reed beds along the Nile, far more in dynastic times than today. They included ducks, geese, finches, egrets, storks, ibis, cranes and red-breasted goose which is no longer found in Egypt.
  • Above, three insects, a shrike, a mineral, a gull, a sprig of a camphor tree and a sprig and berry of a lantana shrub; below, two hares, a duck bernade, two dragon flies and a lemur. Engraving by Heath.
  • Ricinus communis L. Euphorbiaceae Castor oil plant. Palma Christi. Distribution: Mediterranean, E Africa, India. The seeds themselves are pretty, brown, bean-like usually with gold filigree markings on them, and the interior of the seed is the source of castor oil. The outer coat of the seed is the source of the poison ricin, famous (infamous) for the umbrella murder of Georgi Markov on Waterloo Bridge in 1978. The KGB are alleged to have killed Georgi Markov, a dissident Bulgarian journalist, with a pellet containing 0.28mgm of ricin fired into his leg using a specially adapted air gun in an umbrella. While his symptoms were those of ricin poisoning, no ricin was ever found in the pellet that was extracted from his leg. Two seeds, chewed and ingested are said to be fatal, but most people vomit and get rid of the toxin. Ducks are resistant to ricin, and need to ingest more than 80 to be fatal! In Peru the leaves are used as a tea for stomach ache, although they contain small amounts of ricin. It is called Palma Christi in early herbals because of the five pointed leaves, which schematically represent a hand. It is a monotypic genus in the spurge family. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Ricinus communis L. Euphorbiaceae Castor oil plant. Palma Christi. Distribution: Mediterranean, E Africa, India. The seeds themselves are pretty, brown, bean-like usually with gold filigree markings on them, and the interior of the seed is the source of castor oil. The outer coat of the seed is the source of the poison ricin, famous (infamous) for the umbrella murder of Georgi Markov on Waterloo Bridge in 1978. The KGB are alleged to have killed Georgi Markov, a dissident Bulgarian journalist, with a pellet containing 0.28mgm of ricin fired into his leg using a specially adapted air gun in an umbrella. While his symptoms were those of ricin poisoning, no ricin was ever found in the pellet that was extracted from his leg. Two seeds, chewed and ingested are said to be fatal, but most people vomit and get rid of the toxin. Ducks are resistant to ricin, and need to ingest more than 80 to be fatal! In Peru the leaves are used as a tea for stomach ache, although they contain small amounts of ricin. It is called Palma Christi in early herbals because of the five pointed leaves, which schematically represent a hand. It is a monotypic genus in the spurge family. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Ricinus communis L. Euphorbiaceae Castor oil plant. Palma Christi. Distribution: Mediterranean, E Africa, India. The seeds themselves are pretty, brown, bean-like usually with gold filigree markings on them, and the interior of the seed is the source of castor oil. The outer coat of the seed is the source of the poison ricin, famous (infamous) for the umbrella murder of Georgi Markov on Waterloo Bridge in 1978. The KGB are alleged to have killed Georgi Markov, a dissident Bulgarian journalist, with a pellet containing 0.28mgm of ricin fired into his leg using a specially adapted air gun in an umbrella. While his symptoms were those of ricin poisoning, no ricin was ever found in the pellet that was extracted from his leg. Two seeds, chewed and ingested are said to be fatal, but most people vomit and get rid of the toxin. Ducks are resistant to ricin, and need to ingest more than 80 to be fatal! In Peru the leaves are used as a tea for stomach ache, although they contain small amounts of ricin. It is called Palma Christi in early herbals because of the five pointed leaves, which schematically represent a hand. It is a monotypic genus in the spurge family. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Ricinus communis L. Euphorbiaceae Castor oil plant. Palma Christi. Distribution: Mediterranean, E Africa, India. The seeds themselves are pretty, brown, bean-like usually with gold filigree markings on them, and the interior of the seed is the source of castor oil. The outer coat of the seed is the source of the poison ricin, famous (infamous) for the umbrella murder of Georgi Markov on Waterloo Bridge in 1978. The KGB are alleged to have killed Georgi Markov, a dissident Bulgarian journalist, with a pellet containing 0.28mgm of ricin fired into his leg using a specially adapted air gun in an umbrella. While his symptoms were those of ricin poisoning, no ricin was ever found in the pellet that was extracted from his leg. Two seeds, chewed and ingested are said to be fatal, but most people vomit and get rid of the toxin. Ducks are resistant to ricin, and need to ingest more than 80 to be fatal! In Peru the leaves are used as a tea for stomach ache, although they contain small amounts of ricin. It is called Palma Christi in early herbals because of the five pointed leaves, which schematically represent a hand. It is a monotypic genus in the spurge family. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.