WATER FOWL. 405 



bouring kinds in any other department. Their 

 having been tamed has produced alterations in 

 each, by which they differ as much from the wild 

 ones of their respective kinds, as they do among 

 themselves. There is nearly as much difference 

 between the wild and the tame duck, as between 

 some sorts of the duck and the goose ; but still, 

 the characteristics of the kind are strongly marked 

 and obvious, and this tribe can never be mistaken. 



The bill is the first great obvious distinction of 

 the goose kind from all of the feathered tribe. 

 In other birds it is round and wedge-like, or crook- 

 ed at the end. In all the goose kind it is flat and 

 broad, made for the purpose of skimming ponds 

 and lakes of the mantling weeds that stand on the 

 surface. The bills of other birds are made of a 

 horny substance throughout ; these have their in- 

 offensive bills sheathed with a skin which covers 

 them all over. The bill of every other bird seems 

 in some measure formed for piercing or tearing ; 

 theirs are only fitted for shoveling up their food, 

 which is chiefly of the vegetable kind. 



Though these birds do not reject animal food 

 when offered them, yet they can contentedly sub- 

 sist upon vegetables, and seldom seek any other. 

 They are easily provided for ; wherever there is 

 water, there seems to be plenty. All the other 

 web-footed tribes are continually voracious, con- 

 tinually preying. These lead more harmless lives : 

 the weeds on the surface of the water, or the in- 

 sects at the bottom, the grass by the bank, or the 

 fruits and corn in cultivated grounds, are sufficient 

 to satisfy their easy appetites : yet these, like 



