198 FACT AGAINST FICTION. • 



lilstorvj as ducks do not use the olfactory nervej 

 if tliey have it, for any purpose of guidance 

 whatever. Neither does the pheasant, nor any 

 bird with the habits of which I am acquainted. 

 But in times of danger, they have, particularly 

 the waterfowl, and ducks especially^ the keenest 

 sense of lieariiuj. If in a decoy the most minute 

 sound up-wind of them comes on the favouring 

 air, the ducks will at once take wing ; and it is 

 this fact that makes uneducated men, with hearing 

 less acute, and prone to disturb profound silence 

 even with a yawn or a hasty breath, or even an 

 exudation of tobacco, attribute the disturbances 

 of the ducks to the wrong cause. , 



I remember going one day, when at Combe 

 Abbey, with the late Lord Craven,— whose death 

 to this hour I have never ceased most deeply to 

 deplore,' — to take some fowl in his decoy. We 

 were accompanied by the young ladies, who wished 

 to see how the pool was managed ; and when we 

 reached the screen, the old decoy man approached 

 us with pieces of dry turf or jocat, one end of 

 which he lit before putting it into our hands, — • 

 this he did by the young ladies as well as by 

 Lord Craven and myself, and then took the same 



