400 VARIABLE FATNESS. [CHAP. xi. 



bold, with enough song to constitute a warbler ; they 

 live happily in confinement, neither loving nor fearing 

 man. No bird becomes so fat as the Ortolan*; when 

 in perfection, nothing is seen but fat, and the meat of 

 the bird is invisible. But in fatting them we have the 

 same intimation that nature will vindicate her sway, as 

 we find in other cases when we attempt to alter her 

 laws. It is our endeavour to fat them in April, May, 

 and June, when we receive them in large numbers ; but 

 that is their breeding time, and it is not natural for 

 them to get fat then. Whether they feel their captivity 

 at a time when they should be propagating their species, 

 I cannot pretend to say ; but it is certain that during 

 that time a fat Ortolan is a rarity, and to find six 

 such, it is often necessary to handle as many fifties ; 

 whereas in July and August, especially the latter month, 

 they are all fat : a cage containing twenty may be taken 

 down, and found to have none but fat birds in it. Yet 

 it is only nature makes the difference ; the captivity, 

 food, care, are all the same ; and lest it should be said 

 the bird has by the end of the season become reconciled 

 to his lot, I have tried the experiment of keeping them 

 on till another year, and have then found that birds 

 caught in the previous year, and kept in cages for 

 eighteen months, are identical in habits and constitution 

 with those whose incarceration is more recent. 



'* In former times it was almost necessary to go to 

 Paris to eat Ortolans; now (March, 1850) they are of 



* Mr. Baily probably means " no captive or fatted bird," for the 

 Landrail would often rival the Ortolan in fatness. Mr. St. John 

 (Tour in Sutherlandshire, &c.) tells us that, " Sometimes during the 

 shooting season a Landrail rises in some very unexpected place, and 

 they are then as fat as it is possible for a bird to be. The latest 

 Landrail that I killed in 1847 was on the 6th of October, and a 

 fatter bird of any description I never saw." 



