20 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
leg, they ruminate and solace themselves from about ten in the 
morning till four in the afternoon, and then return to their feed- 
ing. During this great proportion of the day they drop much 
dung, in which insects nestle ; and so supply food for the fish, 
which would be poorly subsisted but from this contingency. 
Thus nature, who is a great economist, converts the recreation 
of one animal to the support of another ! Thomson, who was a 
nice observer of natural occurrences, did not let this pleasing 
circumstance escape him. He says, in his Summer, 
" A various group the herds and flocks compose 
on the grassy bank 
Some ruminating lie, while others stand 
flair in the flood, and, often bending, sip 
The circling surface." 
Wolmer-pond, so called, I suppose, for eminence sake, is a vast 
lake for this part of the world, containing, in its whole circum- 
ference, 2646 yards, or very nearly a mile and an half. The length 
of the north-west and opposite side is about 704 yards, and the 
breadth of the south-west end about 456 yards. This measure- 
ment, which I caused to be made with good exactness, gives an 
area of about sixty-six acres, exclusive of a large irregular arm at 
the north-east corner, which we did not take into the reckoning. 
On the face of this expanse of waters, and perfectly secure 
from fowlers, lie all day long, in the winter season, vast flocks 
of ducks, teals, and widgeons, of various denominations ; where 
they preen and solace, and rest themselves, till towards sun-set, 
when they issue forth in little parties (for in their natural state 
they are ail birds of the night) to feed in the brooks and mea- 
dows, returning again with the dawn of the morning. Had this 
lake an arm or two more, and were it planted round with thick 
covert (for now it is perfectly naked), it might make a valuable 
decoy. 
Yet neither its extent, nor the clearness of its water, nor the 
resort of various and curious fowls, nor its picturesque groups of 
