THE WILD DUCK. 
Not long ago I went to stay some time in a farm 
near the Fens. The Fens are a low, flat kind of 
land that lies near the sea : they are very damp and 
wet, and have much mud in them : the rush and 
reed grow all over them, and you do not see any 
tree like the oak or elm, as they will not live in 
such damp mud : the soil is, for the most part, a 
kind of peat, or bog, and is not dry, even in the 
hot part of the year, and when it is cold the Fens 
are all over ice. They are full of wild fowl, such as 
the teal, and wild duck, the moorhen, and coot. At 
one time of the year each reed bank is sure to have 
a nest in it. When I was at the farm I told you of, 
one of the men used to go out with a gun to kill 
the wild fowl, and in this way I saw many a Wild 
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