The lady's country companion; or, how to enjoy a country life rationally / By Mrs. Loudon.

  • Loudon, Mrs. (Jane), 1807-1858.
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The lady's country companion; or, how to enjoy a country life rationally / By Mrs. Loudon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    duck would not live in confinement; but the Earl of Derby has several in his splendid collec- tion at Knowsley, which were reared by feeding them on slugs and other inollusca. The king duck, the beautiful little western duck, the magnificent surf scoter, and the red-crested duck (a beautiful stuffed specimen of which is in the possession of Mr. Waterton) are all highly ornamental, and well deserve to be kept in plea- sure-grounds for their beauty. The pochard, or dun bird, is remarkable for the excellence of its flesh, which closely resembles that of the celebrated canvass-back duck of America. Like that duck it feeds greedily on a species of Vallisneria and on grass-wrack and sea-grass (Ruppia maritima); which last, Mr. Yarrell tells us, is “ called also in America eel-grass, from the form and length of the stem. The ducks dive and pull up these aquatic plants to obtain the tender roots, the only parts they seem to eat. The two plants last named are common near the coast in England.” I think you will now be pretty well tired of aquatic fowls ; and, therefore, I will only mention one more, viz. the coot, respecting which there is a great diversity of opinions. “If a gentleman wishes to have plenty of wild-fowl on his pool,” says Col. Hawker, in his Instructions to Young Sportsmen, “ let him preserve the coots and keep no tame swans. The reason that all wild-fowls