Our viands

Whilst on a visit in the country some years ago we watched the polite behaviour of some neighbours' ducks with much amusement Two ducks belonging to a cottage, desirous of mixing with their fellows, used to creep under a gate and cross the road in the early morning to a farmyard where many others of their kind disported themselves, and, after a day's grubbing, the drake from the farm used to conduct the visitors to their own quarters at sunset in a most ludicrous manner. After leading them to the gate of their domain, he stood by to watch them creep under, but never attempted to follow them : then a great deal of bowing and quacking would take place between the ducks on one side of the gate and the drake on the other — evidently a vote of thanks for polite attentions was duly conveyed and graciously accepted. Then the two ducks would waddle off across a small field to their bedchamber, whilst the drake remained outside the gate watching till they had entered their abode, when, after a few quacks from the ducks to announce their safe arrival, and a good-night in reply from the drake, he would turn away and waddle off to his own harem, to repeat the same polite performance the next night. Everyone will allow that ducks are good eating, not- withstanding the assertion that they are foul feeders. Undoubtedly they will, like the pig, swallow any garbage, but their preference is for slugs and snails, and, if allowed io6 OUR VIANDS to search for themselves in the early morning and late in the evening, they will soon fatten upon these gardeners' enemies, and require very little feeding except in dry, hot, and frosty weather ; and, but that their waddling feet tread down the earth too much, they are excellent assistants to the gardener. Seeing the enormous yearly consumption of the domestic fowl, it is matter of surprise that eggs and poultry are not more cultivated in England. There seems no reason why English farmers should not find it as profitable an industry as the French and Irish do ; but there exists a general opinion that they cannot be made to pay, and consequently the egg and poultry trade is largely given over to foreigners, and of late an immense number of frozen fowls have found their way into the London market — little, short-necked, ill-favoured things, said to come from Russia, but, appearing at a time when English fowls are scarce and dear, they are a very acceptable addition to the menu, although not to be compared in quality with the home-grown fowls from Surrey, Norfolk, and the west of England. Fowls seem to have been domesticated from time immemorial. In Egypt they were even hatched by incubators many centuries B.C. In Greece and Rome the cock was frequently offered in sacrifice, and the regularity of the hour of crowing made it everywhere useful as a timekeeper before the days of clocks, so that we find cock-crowing referred to in Scripture as the time preceding the morning. Cocks were largely used in divination in Greece and Rome, for not only were auguries derived from an inspection of the entrails, but they were supposed to divine "by pecking grain from certain cards placed before them ; but, as there GAME AND POULTRY 107