u6 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



Winchester would turn out to gaze at and admire the 

 white duck seen by the Itchen if white ducks were 

 rare as white swallows in the land. How many things 

 which are beautiful seem not so because of their com- 

 monness and of the uses to which they are put ! What 

 comes now to help me is the memory of a matter in 

 old English history. Close upon a thousand years 

 ago there lived a very beautiful lady of whom little 

 is known except that she was an earl's daughter, and 

 that the young king, who had a passion for beauty ex- 

 ceeding that of all men, even in those wild and violent 

 times, loved and made her his queen. After bearing 

 him a son, who was king too in his time, she died, 

 to England's lasting sorrow. And she was known 

 throughout the realm as the White Duck, on account 

 of her great beauty. We can only suppose that at 

 that distant period the white duck was a rarity in 

 England, therefore that those who saw it looked with 

 concentrated attention at it as we look at any rare and 

 lovely thing — a kingfisher, let us say — and were able 

 to appreciate its perfect loveliness. 



