My second submission to the "Pathfinders" Animal Totem Card Deck ( http://www.pathfindersdeck.com/ ), this time featuring Ducks, of which I've chosen the two most beautiful drakes of all...The Wood Duck and the Mandarin are close relatives, being the only members of the genus "Aix" and belonging to the perching duck tribe "Cairinini". They have rather sharp, long claws enabling them to live effectively in a forest environment, to climb on branches and nest inside of tree cavities.

Even though they originally resided across the world from one another, they now live and nest side-by-side in harmony in a colony in Northern California, where for the first time, Wood Ducks and Mandarin are flying together in the wild on a true Wood Duck flyway. (Thus the bridge and the surrounding flora in this drawing are based on an actual bridge/scene in Northern CA.) True "gems" of the avian world, Wood Ducks and Mandarin have held man's fascination throughout time, each ensconced in the cultures sharing their habitats and portrayed in countless art forms and literary works. The Wood Duck appeared as effigies on Native American pottery more often than any other bird except the owl. Its wondrous beauty naturally appealed to them, being fond as they were of personal decorations and bright colors, and they venerated it, crafted their pipes and bowls into its likeness, and gave it an impressive name.

A source of wonderment and inspiration to the poets, storytellers, fablers and artisians of China and Japan for centuries, the Mandarin has been exalted to a much greater extent than its cousin the Wood Duck. In the Orient, it is a legendary, totemic symbol of interpersonal respect, kindness, marital fidelity and conjugal felicity, as well as a traditional Feng Shui enhancement for romance and marital happiness. This centuries-old reverence for the species originated in the belief that the Mandarin drake and hen are monogamous and display an affection for one another that is unusual among ducks. According to an ancient Chinese belief, a Mandarin that loses its mate will pine away and die. In Japanese folklore, a drake or hen will return to its dead mate, or appear to the killer of its mate in a dream, having first transformed into a human.

Even before the Mandarin had attained its symbolic status in Asia, it was among the animals and plants that appeared in verses intended to impart wisdom. Confucious (in the fifth century, B.C.) urged his followers to collect such odes and songs because they would promote a harmonious society and encourage wisdom and peace among its citizens. These odes and songs, widely known and quoted by educational people during his time and long after, were recited on special occasions, such as a speech of blessing to a guest, since the Ducks' folding of their left wings portends blessing heaped upon blessing, a connection that occurs in verses of the time. The expression could have been given currency by the Mandarin's habit of pointing to its folded wing during courtship displays while lifting one wing after the other to arrange its plumage.

To Chinese Buddhists as well, the image of the Mandarin was used to impart wisdom. Beginning in about 200 B.C., the Mandarin was viewed as a model to mankind of the wisdom of kindness and compassion. Many are the stories and legends connecting the Mandarin with a "Great Enlightened One". When Buddhism came to Japan in the sixth century A.D., so did the Mandarin's symbology. One of the "Wisdom Buddhas", Amida Buddha, was said to have assumed the form of the Mandarin Duck to teach lessons of compassion. In Japan in particular, where Mandarin Ducks can still be seen in village streams and on temple ponds, the ancient symbolism of the Mandarin persists in many forms. The legends of the Mandarin are kept alive in the annual Oshidori festival, and even today, a young couple may receive as a wedding gift a pair of small, gilded pottery bells in the shape of Mandarin--a gesture that blesses their fidelity and devotion.

(Above information partially gleaned from this site: http://www.gamebird.com/refs.html and especially from this book: http://www.amazon.com/Wood-Duck-Man.....dp/0520208129/ .)