BIRDS. 303 



mail's society, or under his protection ; they are neither caged, 

 like the nightingale ; nor kept tame, like the turkey ; but lead a 

 life of precarious libeity, in fens and marshes, at the edges of 

 lakes, and along the sea-shore. They all live upon fish or in- 

 sects, one or two only excepted ; even those that are called vi^id. 

 suckers, such as the snipe and the woodcock, it is more than pro- 

 bable, grope the bottom of marshy places only for such insect* 

 as are deposited there by their kind, and live in a vermicular 

 state, in pools and plashes, till they take wing, and become fly- 

 ing insects. 



All this class, therefore, that are fed upon insects, their food 

 being easily digestible, are good to be eaten ; while those who 

 live entirely upon fish, abounding in oil, acquire in their flesh the 

 rancidity of their diet, and are, in general, unfit for our tables. 

 To savages, indeed, and sailors on a long voyage, every thing 

 that has life seems good to be eaten ; and we often find them 

 recommending those animals as dainties, which they themselves 

 would spurn at after a course of good living. Nothing is more 



common in their journals than such accounts as these " This 



day we shot a fox — pretty good eating : this day we shot a heron 



— pretty good eating : and this day we killed a turtle" 



which they rank with the heron and the fox, as " pretty good 

 eating." Their accounts, therefore, of the flesh of these birds, 

 are not to be depended upon ; and when they cry up the heron 

 or the stork of other countries as luxurious food, we must al- 

 ways attend to the state of their appetites who give the character. 



In treating of this class of birds, it will be best to observe the 

 simplest method possible ; neither to load the memory with 

 numerous distinctions, nor yet confuse the imagination by a 

 total want of arrangement. I will, therefore, describe some of 

 the larger sorts separately ; as, in a history of birds, each of 

 these demands peculiar distinction. The crane, the stork, the 

 Balearic crane, the heron, the bittern, with some others, may 

 rccjuire a separate history. Some particular tribes may next 

 offer, that may very naturally be classed together ; and as for all 

 the smaller and least remarkable sorts, they may be grouped 

 into one general description. 



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