ANATIDA. 523 
and interesting family, but the greater part of them 
are not so intimately connected with man as many 
of the other families, and probably do not do him so 
much good, nor can they be accused of doing him so 
much mischief: that, however, they do both good 
and harm to a certain extent must, I think, be 
apparent to anyone who carefully considers the food 
of the various species; for instance, some of the 
Geese and the Wigeon, living to a great extent on 
grass and young growing corn, must, where they are 
in considerable numbers, do a certain amount of 
mischief; many also, especially of the diving ones, 
destroy a good deal of fish-spawn; a few fish also 
fall a prey to them, but not in sufficient numbers to 
be worth consideration: on the other hand, slugs, 
snails, caterpillars, flies, beetles, and other insects 
and larvee, inhabiting both land and water, constantly 
fall a prey to them, and form a very considerable 
portion of their food. The greater part of these 
birds are also themselves useful as food, the flesh of 
many of them being excessively good, and much 
esteemed for the table: others, especially the more 
sea-going ones, are not so good, the flesh being 
rank and oily, and having “an ancient and fish-like 
smell,”—indeed, so fish-like in some of the species 
that, as I mentioned in the case of the Common 
Scoter, it is considered by the Roman Catholics as 
fish, and allowed by them to be eaten on fast-days. 
