262 COOKERY OF DUCKS AND GEESE 



widgeon, counted twenty-four to the dozen, sold for 

 a trifle under five shillings. 



There are surface-feeding ducks and there are 

 diving ducks. It need hardly be said that the former 

 are by far the best; but the worst of them is that, 

 though voracious, which is well, they are omnivorous, 

 which is unfortunate. As I have said, it is almost in- 

 variably a toss-up how any duck may taste. You bring 

 home a plump mallard, and after gorging on grain he is 

 all the heart of man could desire. On the other hand, 

 another of as fair appearance may be little better than 

 carrion; he has been ' groping in the gutters,' to borrow 

 a phrase of Sir Mungo Malagrowther's, or he may have 

 disinterred a heap of rotten potatoes and has been 

 stuffing on that savoury treasure trove. Yet, take them 

 all round, combining weight with quality, the mallards 

 properly the name is only applied to the male claim 

 to lead. The shoveller, which often breeds in Scot- 

 land, is also excellent on occasion ; but the odds 

 against the shoveller are longer, which is to be 

 accounted for from their respective habits. The mal- 

 lard affectionates running streams and purling rills; 

 the shoveller is to be found in still pools and stagnant 

 ditches, where, with his long and ' shovel ' beak, he 

 dredges for the tiny molluscs and foul-tasting larvae. 

 Talking of the flavour of the shoveller, I have always 



