CHAP, xi.j THETE DIET. 399 



body seems a necessary consequence of their equanimity 

 of temper. 



The Ortolan is as easy in its diet as in everything 

 else ; give it but enough canary-seed and fresh water, 

 and it is content. It does not seem in the least to 

 crave for groundsel, plantain-seed, fresh turfs, or any 

 other cage indulgence. A secret, communicated by 

 Lord Brougham to a West-End poulterer, is, that for a 

 day or two before killing them, a few pieces of suet 

 may be advantageously administered. This is much 

 the same thing as Mr. Huxtable's pig-secret. When 

 canary-seed is not at hand, other grain will suffice. 

 " These birds, taken in great numbers in nets with 

 decoy- birds, and fattened for the table, are," Booth's 

 Analytical Dictionary tells us, " fed up with oats and 

 millet-seed till they become lumps of fat three ounces in 

 weight, some of which are potted or otherwise pre- 

 served, and so exported to foreign countries." 



For a few commercial particulars respecting Ortolans 

 I have to thank Mr. Baily, the respectable and well- 

 known poulterer of Mount Street, Grosvenor Square. 

 " I was the first importer," he writes, " of Ortolans 

 into this country, as a matter of trade; some years 

 since I used to get them one or two at a time, and then 

 sold them easily at a guinea each." This price is almost 

 classical ; for in Goldsmith's Essay on " The Frailty of 

 Man," in describing Mr. Th. Gibber, he says, " He would 

 eat an Ortolan, though he begged the guinea that 

 bought it;" and again, "As he grew old, he did not 

 grow better, but loved Ortolans and green peas, as be- 

 fore." Mr. Baily continues, " We now have them by 

 hundreds, and fat them for the table. They are Bunt- 

 ings, breaking their seed against a small projection from 

 the roof of the mouth. They are cheerful, greedy, 



