CHAPTER XI 



THE ORTOLAN, 



The fatting of wild birds largely practised by the ancients. Good old- 

 fashioned fare. Mock and true Ortolans. Not native Britons. Merits as cage 

 birds. Their song, plumage, and diet. Variable states of fatness. Effects of 

 revolutions. Beau Tibbs and his Ortolan. 



THE Quail and the Ortolan are, in England, about 

 the last remaining instances of a practice which has 

 obtained to a much greater extent in other coun- 

 tries than it ever has in this, and which has been 

 systematically pursued from a very remote anti- 

 quity. Wild birds have, from the earliest ages, been 

 taken alive by various means, and fatted for the table, 



