A PINCH OF SALT 



accept this story without question because I find it 

 printed in a book ? In the first place, is it not most 

 remarkable that if the ducks had discovered that 

 the bivalves could not live in fresh water, they 

 should not also have discovered that they could not 

 live in the air ? In fact, that they would die as soon 

 in the air as in the fresh water ? ^ See how much 

 trouble the ducks could have saved themselves by 

 going and sitting quietly upon the beach, or putting 

 their heads under their wings and going to sleep 

 on the wave. Oysters are often laid down in fresh 

 water to fatten " before being sent to market, and 

 probably mussels would thrive for a short time in 

 fresh water equally well. In the second place, a 

 duck's tongue is a very short and stiff affair, and is 

 fixed in the lower mandible as in a trough. Ducks 

 do not protrude the tongue when they feed; they 

 cannot protrude it; and if a duck can crush a mus- 

 sel-shell with its beak, what better position could it 

 have the bivalve in than fast to the tongue between 

 the upper and the lower mandible The story is 

 certainly a very " fishy" one. In all such cases the 

 mind follows the line of least resistance. If the 

 ducks were deliberately holding their bills under 

 water, it is easier to believe that they did it because 

 they thereby found some relief from pain, than that 

 they knew the bivalves would let go their hold 



1 I have tried the experiment on two ordinary clams, and they 

 both died on the third day. 



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