Domestic Muscovy drakes weigh some 4.5–6.3 kg. The duck is much smaller, typically about half the size of the drake, with a weight of 2.3–3.2 kg.[3]: 466
Recognised colour varieties include five solid colours – black, blue, chocolate, lavender and white[3]: 465 – and eight 'magpie' colours, in which the whole back from the tail to the shoulders and the underside from below the tail to the breast is coloured black, blue, chocolate or lavender, the remainder being white. In the standard magpie colourings the crown of the head is also coloured; in the white-headed magpie colours the head is white.[3]: 466
Mulards from the crossing of a Muscovy duck (Cairina moschata) and a wild-type mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)
In commercial production, it is often crossed with a mallard-derived domestic duck such as the RouenorPekin to produce the hybrid known as a mulard.[4]: 97 These hatch in about four weeks and grow rapidly like a mallard-type duck, but to about the size and weight of the Muscovy.[4]: 97 The inverse cross – domestic drake with Muscovy duck – is also possible, but infrequent.[4]: 97 [5] The mulard is reared both for its meat and for its liver, much of it as foie gras.[5] The mulard is considered kosher in Jewish dietary law.[5]
