INTRODUCTION 31 



Eider Ducks, young Burgomaster Gulls, and even herons, and found them delicious, 

 but the same birds at home would probably have driven the cook out of the kitchen. 

 New England "coot" stew (made from Scoter Ducks) is still popular in this region, 

 but it is good in direct proportion to the thoroughness of its disguise in cooking, and 

 loons, herons, and grebes might serve about as well if a sufficiency of the culinary art 

 were lavished upon them. 



There has been no chemical analysis of the flesh of wild ducks so far as I have dis- 

 covered, but it is not likely that it differs much from what is found in tame varieties. 

 According to a United States Government Bulletin, ducks as purchased contain less 

 refuse than do chickens, and in the actual meat there is about the same amount of 

 water. The proteid content is about the same, but the fat is twice as much, so that 

 the actual caloric value of the edible portion is considerably greater, in fact the dif- 

 ference amounts to nearly sixty per cent. Wild ducks' meat is a hearty food, and it 

 should appear on the table as the piece de resistance, not, as it so often does, following 

 a substantial meat course. 



I do not think wild-fowl in good condition need be hung more than two or three 

 days. This does not hold with pheasants, grouse, snipe, and woodcock, but I never 

 could see that the flavor of a really prime duck was improved with age. After roast- 

 ing in a very hot oven, the carcass should be well singed in a flame, or seared with a 

 red-hot iron. 



In considering the qualities of ducks' flesh the age of the bird, the place at which 

 it was shot, the flavor, the texture, and the delicacy should be considered. Sometimes 

 birds of fair flavor are coarse and dry, as with Scaups and Golden-eyes; others that 

 are juicy and delicate may have too strong a flavor from feeding on marine mollusks. 



The best physicians of Rome, according to Aldrovandi, were against the use of 

 tame ducks' meat as apt to "agree not with the stomach," but the flesh of wild ducks 

 was considered savory and wholesome. There are many allusions to the medicinal 

 virtues of ducks' flesh in older writings. 



HUNTING 



This subject is far too lengthy a one to consider, and it is covered so well by many 

 books in this country, and particularly in England, that it would be of little interest 

 here. Under each species some mention will be made of hunting methods, but nearly 

 every part of a country has its characteristic boats, decoys, dogs, and blinds, so that 

 a full consideration is not possible. The more primitive native methods of shooting 

 or netting will here and there be referred to. This subject has been carefully studied 

 by MacPherson in his History of Fowling. 



Many keen duck-shooters find themselves getting more and more sentimental as 

 they grow older, and these are the men who originate all our worth-while reforms, 

 not the type that has been brought up to look with holy horror upon guns and shoot- 



