Indian Runner Duck

A domestic duck breed, Anas platyrhynchos domesticus, originating from the Indonesian islands of Lombok, Java and Bali, recognized by its distinctive upright, penguin-like posture and its habit of running rather than waddling or flying. The breed reached the Western world during the nineteenth century, and an undated pamphlet, The India Runner: its History and Description, published by John Donald between 1885 and 1890, helped establish it as an egg-laying variety in Europe and America. Indian Runners weigh 1.4 to 2.3 kilograms and stand 50 centimeters in small females up to 76 centimeters in tall males, with a long, wedge-shaped head, a slender neck, pink skin and greenish-blue eggs. The breed is renowned for egg production, with documented averages around 173 to 174 eggs a year, and it has been bred extensively for color variety and served as foundational stock for modern light-duck egg-laying breeds such as the Khaki Campbell.