The Natural History of Se I borne 425 



a peculiar flavour to their flesh that is to me very palatable : 

 the flavour also of wild ducks and geese greatly depends on 

 the nature of their food ; and their flesh frequently contracts 

 a rank unpleasant taste from their having lately fed on strong 

 marshy aquatic plants, as I suppose. 



That the leaves of vegetables are wholesome and conducive 

 to the health of birds seems probable, for many people fat 

 their ducks and turkeys with the leaves of lettuce chopped 

 small. MARKWICK. 



HEN-HARRIER. 



A NEIGHBOURING gentleman sprung a pheasant in a wheat 

 stubble, and shot at it ; when, notwithstanding the report of 

 the gun, it was immediately pursued by the blue hawk, known 

 by the name of the hen-harrier, but escaped into some covert. 

 He then sprung a second, and a third, in the same field, that 

 got away in the same manner : the hawk hovering round him 

 all the while that he was beating the field, conscious no doubt 

 of the game that lurked in the stubble. Hence we may 

 conclude that this bird of prey was rendered very daring 

 and bold by hunger, and that hawks cannot always seize 

 their game when they please. We may farther observe, that 

 they cannot pounce their quarry on the ground where it 

 might be able to make a stout resistance, since so large a 

 fowl as a pheasant could not but be visible to the piercing 

 eye of a hawk, when hovering over the field. Hence that pro- 

 pensity of cowering and squatting till they are almost trod 

 on, which no doubt was intended as a mode of security ; 

 though long rendered destructive to the whole race of gallinae 

 by the invention of nets and guns. WHITE. 



Of the great boldness and rapacity of birds of prey when 

 urged on by hunger, I have seen several instances; particu- 

 larly, when shooting in the winter in company with two 

 friends, a woodcock flew across us, closely pursued by a small 

 hawk : we all three fired at the woodcock instead of the 



