BiUDS. 4'O.i 



even but otic. Nature that has supplied them with powers of 

 destruction, lias denied them fertility. But it i.s otherwise with 

 these harmless animals I am describing. They seem formed to 

 fill up the chasms in animated nature, caused by the voracious- 

 ness of others. They breed in great abundance, and lead their 

 young to the pool the instant they are excluded. 



As their food is simple, so their flesh is nourishing and whole- 

 some. The swan was considered as a high delicacy among 

 the ancients ; the goose was abstained from as totally indigesti- 

 ble. Modern manners have inverted tastes ; the goose is now 

 become the favourite ; and the swan is seldom brought to table, 

 unless for the purposes of ostentation. But at all times the 

 flesh of the duck was in high esteem ; the ancients thought even 

 more highly of it than we do. We are contented to eat it as a 

 delicacy j they also considered it as a medicine ; and Plutarch 

 assures us, that Cato kept his whole family in health, by feeding 

 them with duck whenever they threatened to be out of order. 



These qualities, of great fecundity, easy sustenance, and whole- 

 some nourishment, have been found so considerable as to induce 

 man to take these birds from a state of nature, and render tlieni 

 domestic. How long they have been thus dependents 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 fea- 

 ther, exactly correspond with that of any other. But in the 

 tame kinds, no two of any species are exactly alike. Different 

 in their size, tlicir colours, and frequently in their general form, 

 they seem the mere creatures of art ; and having been so long 

 dependent upcti man for support, they seem to assume lorm;! 

 entirely suited to his pleasures or necessities. 



