‘He quaddled down the hard mud … ‘

A charming variant of ‘waddle’, also written ‘quoddle’. Since ducks are known for waddling, you wonder if ‘quaddle’ emerged when someone witnessed a waddle and a quack while crossing a puddle and muddled the two.

Source: Henry Williamson, Tarka the Otter: His joyful water-life and death in the two rivers, illus. C.F. Tunnicliffe (Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, 1976 (1927)), p. 109