THAMES AND TWEED. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



IT is my belief that, when dominion was given to 

 man over the beasts of the field, the birds of the 

 .air, and the fishes of the sea, certain tribes or fami- 

 lies of the two former were more especially destined 

 for his use and sustenance, and were endued with 

 the instinct of domestication, which rendered them 

 subservient to his will, reliant on him for their 

 support and maintenance, and submissive in at 

 least some measure to his requirements for animal 

 food. Of some beasts, then as now, both the wild 

 and the tame type existed ; of others the wild only, 

 or the tame only. So with birds : there were tame 

 birds and wild birds, and some which, being neither 

 tame nor wild, were capable of sufficient domesti- 

 cation to keep them within the reach of man, 

 although they might not, like Mrs Partington's 

 ducks, "come and be killed/' I think that no one 



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