OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS 335 



ing ; but then the same fear prevails in their minds ; for, 

 through apprehension from polecats and stoats, they never 

 trust themselves to coverts, but nestle together in the midst 

 of large fields, far removed from hedges and coppices, which 

 they love to haunt in the day, and where at that season they 

 can skulk more secure from the ravages of rapacious birds. 



As to ducks and geese, their awkward splay web-feet forbid 

 them to settle on trees : they therefore, in the hours of dark- 

 ness and danger, betake themselves to their own element, the 

 water, where amidst large lakes and pools, like ships riding 

 at anchor, they float the whole night long in peace and security. 

 WHITE. 



Guinea fowls not only roost on high, but in hard weather 

 resort, even in the day-time, to the very tops of the highest 

 trees. Last winter, when the ground was covered with snow, 

 I discovered all my guinea fowls, in the middle of the day, 

 sitting on the highest boughs of some very tall elms, chatter- 

 ing and making a great clamor : I ordered them to be driven 

 down lest they should be frozen to death in so elevated a 

 situation, but this was not effected without much difficulty ; 

 they being very unwilling to quit theif lofty abode, notwith- 

 standing one of them had its feet so much frozen that we were 

 obliged to kill it. I know not how to account for this, unless 

 it was occasioned by their aversion to the snow on the ground, 

 they being birds that come originally from a hot climate. 



Notwithstanding the awkward splay web-feet (as Mr. White 

 calls them) of the duck genus, some of the foreign species 

 have the power of settling on the boughs of trees apparently 

 with great ease ; an instance of which I have seen in the Earl 

 of Ashburnham's menagerie, where the summer duck, anas 

 sponsa, flew up and settled on the branch of an oak-tree in 

 my presence : but whether any of them roost on trees in the 

 night, we are not informed by any author that I am acquainted 

 with. I suppose not, but that, like the rest of the genus, they 

 sleep on the water, where the birds of this genus are not 

 always perfectly secure, as will appear from the following cir- 

 cumstance which happened in this neighborhood a few years 

 since, as I was credibly informed. A female fox was found 



