WATER FOWL. 407 



These qualities of great fecundity, easy suste- 

 nance, and wholesome nourishment, have been 

 found so considerable as to induce man to take 

 these birds from a state of nature, and render 

 them domestic. How long they have been thus 

 dependants upon his pleasures, is not known ; for, 

 from the earliest accounts, they were considered 

 as familiars about him. The time must have been 

 very remote ; for there have been many changes 

 wrought in their colours, their figures, and even 

 their internal parts, by human cultivation. The 

 different kinds of these birds, in a wild state, are 

 simple in their colourings : when one has seen a 

 wild goose or a wild duck, a description of its 

 plumage will, to a feather, exactly correspond 

 with that of any other. But in the tame kinds 

 no two of any species are exactly alike. Diffe- 

 rent in their size, their colours, and frequently 

 in their general form, they seem the mere crea- 

 tures of art ; and, having been so long depen- 

 dant upon man for support, they seem to assume 

 forms entirely suited to his pleasures or necessi- 

 ties. 



