238 TO CHOOSE BITU)S. 



instance, would have little hesitation in serving you 

 with a couple of scoters, or burrough ducks, by way 

 of a " delicate bottom dish for your second course." 



Although it is not meant to dwell here on a sub- 

 ject, which more properly belongs to a cookery book, 

 yet it would be very hard not to have some considera- 

 tion for many, who would rather see one bird roasted 

 and well frothed up on a table, than ten thousand 

 springing from a stubble, or feeding under the moon. 

 Let it therefore be observed, that, in choosing birds, 

 you cannot be guided better than by selecting those, 

 which, of their kind, are the heaviest in weight and 

 the least beautiful in plumage. 



Young birds may be distinguished by the softness 

 of their quills, which, in older ones, will be hard and 

 white. The females are, in general, preferable to the 

 males ; they are more juicy, and seldom so tough. 

 For example, a hen pheasant* or a duck is to be 

 preferred to a cock pheasant or a mallard. The old 

 pheasants may be distinguished by the length and 

 sharpness of their spurs, which, in the younger ones, 

 are short and Hunt. Old partridges are always to be 

 known, during the early part of the season, by their 

 legs being of a pale blue, instead of a yellowish 

 brown ; so that, when a Londoner receives his brace 

 of blue-legged birds in September, he should im- 



* Provided it is not a very dark coloured one, which would de- 

 note its being an old barren hen. Such birds, by the way, should 

 always be destroyed as vermin) because they take to sucking the 

 eggs of the others. 



