406 HISTORY OP 



every other animal, will not reject flesh, if proper- 

 ly prepared for them ; it is sufficient praise to 

 them that they do not eagerly pursue it. 



As their food is chiefly vegetables, so their fe- 

 cundity is in proportion. We have had frequent 

 opportunities to observe, that all the predatory 

 tribes, whether of birds or quadrupeds, are barren 

 and unfruitful. We have seen the lion with its 

 two cubs, the eagle with the same number, and 

 the penguin with even but one. Nature, that has 

 supplied them with powers of destruction, has 

 denied them fertility. But it is otherwise with 

 these harmless animals I am describing. They 

 seem formed to fill up the chasms in animated 

 nature, caused by the voraciousness of others. 

 They breed in great abundance, and lead their 

 young to the pool the instant they are excluded. 



As their food is simple, so their flesh is nou- 

 rishing and wholesome. The swan was consider- 

 ed as a high delicacy among the ancients ; the 

 goose was abstained from as totally indigestible. 

 Modern manners have inverted tastes ; the goose 

 is now become the favourite, and the swan is 

 seldom brought to table, unless for the purposes 

 of ostentation. But at all times the flesh of the 

 duck was in high esteem ; the ancients thought 

 even more highly of it than we do. We are con- 

 tented to eat it as a delicacy, they also consider- 

 ed it as a medicine ; and Plutarch assures us, that 

 Cato kept his whole family in health, by feeding 

 them with duck whenever they threatened to be 

 out of order. 



