WANTED— A NEW MEAT 163 
kings. Yet there are probably twenty people in this 
country who have eaten canvas-backed duck for one 
who has ever tasted swan, or rather cygnet, the finest 
water-fowl for the table alike in size and flavour, a bird 
easy to rear, most prolific, rivalling even the breast of 
a teal, without the fatal drawback of that excellent 
little bird, that no one has ever been able to get enough 
of it. Even now, though so neglected by the world, 
swans may be had from the Norwich Swan-Pit for ^2 
each. They weigh some sixteen pounds, and with 
them is forwarded an ancient recipe for cooking 
them — “ done into rhyme by a Person of Quality.” 
Another “ fowl ” which was once reserved for the 
tables of kings, and is now hardly thought good 
enough for aldermen, is the peacock. What roast 
swan is to roast goose, such is roast peacock to roast 
turkey. Many owners of country houses who keep 
peacocks and let them run wild and nest in their woods 
and shrubberies, take little trouble either to fatten 
or cook the pea-chicks. If they did, they would 
perhaps take more pains to rear these birds for the 
table. The meat is very white, and of exceedingly 
fine and close grain, and has the true game-flavour, 
with none of the stringiness of the common turkey. 
The American wild turkey is, however, an even finer 
bird for the table than the peacock. Those which 
appear in the poulterers’ shops of London generally 
arrive in such bad condition from careless packing and 
refrigerating, that they are inferior to the domestic 
bird. But when allowed to run wild and nest in 
