Museums quack each other up on Twitter

It all started with a simple challenge.

Then it grew into one big ducking trolling session between two British institutions.

On Jan. 4, The Museum of English Rural Life’s Twitter account issued a simple request to London’s Natural History Museum.

“Hey @britishmuseum give us your best duck,” the tweet stated.

Naturally, the challenge was answered by the Natural History Museum.

“Can’t. They gave them all to us,” the museum responded with an illustration of four ducks.

While it seemed like some friendly poking between two institutions, others wanted to join in on the fun, including Felicity Myrone, the lead curator of Western Prints and Drawings and the British Library.

“Ahem. We still have quite a few,” Myrone tweeted alongside two illustrations of the bird from medieval manuscripts.

Thinking they had the best response, Britain’s National Railway Museum tweeted a picture of one of its trains, the aptly named Mallard.

“Bet it’s not as fast as our duck, Mallard,” responded the railway museum.

Other museums and institutions from across the world joined in. Even Toronto’s Spadina House Museum tweeted with four paintings of dead ducks.

“You want ducks? We’ve got ducks. But they’re all, er ... resting,” it tweeted.

The Museum of English Rural Life had the last laugh at the expense of Spadina House, effectively ending the conversation.

“Look at the kind dog taking their friend for a walk,” the museum tweeted, responding to a painting of a dog with a dead duck in its mouth.