190 WILD-FOWL SHOOTING. 



loading gun. Neither your wild swan nor 

 your wild goose is a gastronomic prize. The 

 barnacle is supposed, by simple people, (and 

 Professor Max Miiller has been at consider- 

 able pains to account for the odd tradition), to 

 be developed out of the fishy parasite of the 

 same name, and any one who has ever tried to 

 eat the bird can well understand how it came 

 to be associated with so odd a progenitor. 

 The wild swan combines in its flesh the fra- 

 grance and delicacy of a retired he-goat, with a 

 smack of train-oil and red herring. Still, the 

 wild swan is now comparatively as rare as his 

 black brother was described to be in the 

 familiar quotation, and is, therefore, slain for 

 show ; and, somehow or other, the goose is 

 always regarded with an expectancy connected 

 with seasoning and powerful sauces that is 

 never realized. Sit down to this bird after the 

 most skilful cook has been operating on it, and 

 you will be forcibly reminded of that chapter 

 in Smollett, on the " Feast after the Manner of 

 the Ancients." The widgeon, even in rough 

 weather, often ride over the shallows, and it is 

 just possible to have a shot at them by creep- 



