184 EEMINISCEXCES OF A SPOETSMAN". 



the table in various ways. Sometimes they are roasted 

 in a natural or artificial egg-shell ; a mode of cooking 

 borrowed from the ancients, who not only dressed small 

 birds, but presented them at their entertainments in this 

 manner, so that upon opening the egg they were seen 

 amidst a high- seasoned sauce. In Grascony, where a 

 great number of ortolans are taken in the spring with 

 bar-nets, and put in cages to fatten with oats and millet 

 in a dark room, they sometimes weigh as much as three 

 ounces. "WTien the ortolans arrive at their proper de- 

 gree of fatness they should be killed ; if this is not done 

 they soon drop off their perch in a fit of apoplexy. I 

 tried the experiment on one, and found him lying dead 

 in his cage from over fatness. My wife, when residing 

 in this department, put into a lottery for twelve dozen of 

 fat ortolans, but fortunately she did not gain the prize, 

 for I should have been rather puzzled what to do with 

 them. Six dinners would have disposed of half the 

 ■number, and the remainder I should have given to my 

 friends. There are some presents which you receive 

 from the kindness of your friends which entail expense 

 and anxiety ; amongst these I class a haunch of venison, 

 sent in the Dog-days, which must be dressed mthout 

 delay, and the chances are two to one that on so short a 

 notice you are unable to get a party to partake of 

 it, and driven to the necessity of eating it en famille. 

 The ortolans in France are cooked in vine leaves, and 

 when a diner Jin is given, a dish of ortolans always forms 

 part of the second course if these birds are in season, and 

 if the party should consist of sixteen persons there would 

 be an ortolan for each. Although I have frequently 

 partaken of these dinners when I resided with my family 

 for some years in Gascony, I never recollect one of these 



