334 
BRITISH BIRDS, 
their ftead. In the wild ftate they pair, and are 
monogamous, but become polygamous when tame. 
The Count de Buffon, whofe lively and ingeni- 
ous flights of imagination are peculiar to himfelf, 
fays — Man made a double conqueft when he 
fubdued inhabitants at once of the air and of the 
water. Free in both thefe vafl elements, equally 
fitted to roam in the regions of the atmofphere, to 
glide through the ocean or plunge under its bil- 
lows, the aquatic birds feemed deftined by nature 
to live for ever remote from our fociety, and from 
the limits of our dominion.’^ “ Eggs taken from 
the reeds and ruflies amidfl: the water, and fet un- 
der an adopted mother, firfl: produced, in our farm- 
yards, wild, fhy, fugitive birds, perpetually roving 
and unfettled, and impatient to regain the abodes 
of liberty.’’ Thefe, however, after they had bred 
and reared their own young in the domeftic afy- 
lum, became attached to the fpot ; and their de- 
fcendants, in procefs of time, grew more and more 
gentle and tradable, till at lafl they appear to have 
nearly relinquiflied and forgotten the prerogatives 
of the favage flate, although they ftill retain a 
ilrong propenfity to roam abroad, in fearch, no 
doubt, of the larger pools, marfhy places, and bogs, 
which it is natural to fuppofe they mull prefer to 
the beaten, hard, pebbly-covered furface furround- 
ing the fcantily watered hamlet ; and indeed it is 
well known to every obferving good houfewife, that 
