220 A HISTORY OF 



supposed to be of the goose kind. The down of the swan is brought 

 from Dantzic. The same place also sends us great quantities of the 

 feathers of the cock and hen ; but Greenland, Iceland, and Norway, 

 furnish the best feathers of all : and in this number we may reckon 

 the Eider-down, of which we shall take notice in this place. The 

 best method of curing feathers, is to lay them in a room in an open 

 exposure to the sun, and when dried, to put them into bags, and beat 

 them well with poles to get the dust off. But after all, nothing will 

 prevent, for a time, the heavy smell which arises from the putrefaction 

 of the oil contained in every feather ; no exposure will draw this olF, 

 now long soever it be continued ; they must be laid upon, which is 

 the only remedy : and for this reason, old feathers are much more va- 

 luable than new. 



CHAPTER XII. 



OP THE DUCK AND ITS VARIETIES. 



THE Tame Duck is the most easily reared of all our domestic am 

 mals. The very instincts of the young ones direct them to their fa- 

 vourite element ; and though they are conducted by a hen, yet they 

 despise the admonitions of their leader. 



This serves as an incontestible proof that all birds have their man- 

 ners rather from Nature than education. A falcon pursues the par- 

 tridge, not because it is taught by the old one, but because its appe- 

 tites make their importunate call for animal food ; the cuckoo follows 

 a very different trade from that which its nurse endeavoured to teach 

 it ; and, if we may credit Pliny, in time destroys its instructer : ani- 

 mals of the duck kind also follow their appetites, not their tutor, and 

 come to all their various perfections without any guide. All the arts 

 possessed by man, are the result of accumulated experience ; all the 

 arts of inferior animals are self-taught, and scarce one acquired by 

 imitation. 



It is usual with the good women to lay duck eggs under a hen, be- 

 cause she hatches them better than the original parent would have 

 done. The duck seems to be a heedless, inattentive mother ; she 

 frequently leaves her eg"gs till they spoil, and even seems to forget 

 that she is intrusted with the charge : she is equally regardless of 

 them when excluded ; she leads them to the pond, and thinks she has 

 sufficiently provided for her offspring when she has shown them the 

 water. Whatever advantages may be procured by coming near the 

 house, or attending the yard, she declines them all ; and often lets 

 the vermin, who haunt the waters, destroy them, rather than bring 

 them to take shelter nearer home. The hen is a nurse of a very op- 

 posite character she broods with the utmost assiduity, and generally 

 'rings forth a young one from every egg committed to her charge 



