210 ON VARIOUS PARTS 



stance of which I have seen in the earl of 

 Ashburnhani^s menagerie, where the sum- 

 mer duck, anas sponsa, flew up and settled 

 on the branch of an oak-tree in my pre- 

 sence ; but whether any of them roost on 

 trees in the night, we are not informed by 

 any author that I am acquainted with. I 

 suppose not, but that, like the rest of the 

 genus, they sleep on the water, where the 

 birds of this genus are not always perfectly 

 secure, as will appear from the following 

 circumstance which happened in this 

 neighbourhood a few years since, as I was 

 credibly informed. A female fox was 

 found in the morning drowned in the same 

 pond in which were several geese, and it 

 was supposed that in the night the fox 

 swam into the pond to devour the geese, 

 but was attacked by the gander, which 

 being most powerful in its own element, 

 buffetted the fox with its wings about the 

 head till it was drowned. Markwick. 



