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 pleasure-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 Vallisnèria and on grass-wrack and sea grass (Rúpia marítima); 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 part 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 seek the company of the coots is, because these birds are such good sentries to give the alarm by day when the fowl generally sleep." "If you wish to have your water-fowl breed," says Captain Mangles, "have no coots, for if you have they will destroy all the eggs." Where there are coots, and it is wished to destroy them, it is extremely difficult to do so by shooting at them, as the moment they see the gun, they dive into the water, and when they come up again, are frequently a hundred yards from the place where they sank. They also make a great commotion in the water by flapping their wings along its surface, and making a tremendous rushing noise, so that it is not very easy to approach them even with a boat.
Almost every park where there are trees contains pheasants; and in many places especial contrivances have been resorted to for feeding and keeping these birds. The places which they like to frequent are woods and plantations where there is plenty of undergrowth, and they are particularly fond of places where fern and brake grow abundantly. When it is wished to stock a park with pheasants, it is usual to set the eggs under a common hen, and when they are hatched, which will be in from twenty-three to twenty-seven days, the young ones should be put into a basket with a bit of flannel till the whole are hatched and the shells have been removed from the nest. They are then put back to the hen, and fed with eggs boiled hard and then cut small, and curd made by mixing new milk with the water in which a lump of alum has been dissolved. They should also have a few ants' eggs if they can be procured, and, if they cannot, a raw egg should be beaten up and mixed with as much flour as will make it into a paste, and then rubbed through a coarse sieve so as to leave it in little grains. Young pheasants should be fed often, and have but a very little at a time. When they are able to run about, they are first put out with the hen under a coop like chickens; but, when they get older and stronger, the hen is put on one of the lower branches of the tree in the poultry-yard, and tied to it by the leg, so that she can move about on the branch, but not descend to the ground; the young pheasants seeing her on the tree will fly up to her, and thus learn to perch. In a few days the hen is put upon one of the higher branches of the tree, and the young pheasants soon learn to follow her. In a week or ten days after this, they are generally old enough to leave the hen, and they may be turned into the woods; though they will require feeding every morning and evening for some weeks. Pheasants are naturally very shy, and even when reared in this manner they become so timid in the course of a few weeks that they will not suffer any one to come near them. Many persons suppose that, as they are natives of Asia Minor, they are tender, and easily affected by the cold; but this is not the case, as they will bear cold better than most others of the feathered race.
Some persons try to fatten pheasants by putting them in a small enclosure covered with a net; but pheasants treated in this manner are never so good as those shot wild in the woods.
Many plans have been devised for feeding pheasants in the woods, but none are better than those of Mr. Waterton at Walton Hall. At that most interesting place, which may be called the paradise of birds, Mr. Waterton has formed clumps of hollies, by planting twenty or more in a circle, and then making an inner circle, containing ten or fifteen trees, and scattering the food for the birds between the two circles, or in the centre of the inner one. In other places a yew tree surrounded by a holly hedge forms a place of shelter for the birds; but the first kind is preferred for a feeding-place. The pheasant requires a great deal of food; and Mr. Waterton, whose knowledge of the subject is proverbial, tells us that "it is fond of acorns, beech mast, the berries of the hawthorn, the seeds of the wild rose, and the tubers of the Jerusalem artichoke. Boiled potatoes (which the pheasant prefers much to those in the raw state) are," he adds, "perhaps the most nourishing things that can be offered in the depth of winter." The plantations of hollies afford the pheasant a retreat to feed in admirably suited to its timid nature, and they serve at the same time to keep the smaller birds at a distance.
Pheasants are generally considered worth encouraging in a park, for their ornamental effect when sitting on the trees, or rising with a loud whirr from their covers. It is also agreeable to hear their call in the woods at roosting-time and early in the morning. A wood without any living creatures in it presents only a dreary scene, or at best only gloomy pictures to the imagination; but, as soon as it is instinct with life, its whole aspect seems changed, and cheerful feelings are excited. I like, therefore, to encourage birds and other half wild animals in extensive parks, and I would only banish those whose natural propensities make their presence more likely to give pain than pleasure.
Partridges require very little aid from man, provided only the common kind is desired. All that is necessary is, to prevent the hen from being disturbed while sitting, or while brooding over her young. May is the month in which the partridge generally lays her eggs, and, from that time till the end of June, care should be taken not to disturb her. "Partridges pair early in spring, and once united it is rare that any thing but death separates them." The female lays from fourteen to twenty eggs, and makes her nest upon the ground. The young one runs as soon as it is hatched, and frequently while it has still part of the shell upon its head. The hen partridge rears her young as a hen does her chickens, scratching the ground to get insects for them, and sheltering them under her wings while they are at rest. Partridges succeed best in temperate climates; for extremes of heat and cold are alike unfavourable to them. Partridges make a peculiar noise called jucking when they settle down for the night; when this noise is heard, it is a certain indication that there is a covey or brood of young birds close at hand.
The red-legged, or Guernsey, partridge is very abundant in France, and in many parts of the Continent; but it is rare in England, except in Suffolk, where it is not liked for the table. Its habits differ materially from those of the common partridge. It will only thrive in mountainous situations covered with wood; and, instead of roosting on the ground, it passes the night on trees. It is also generally found perched on trees in the daytime; and it lives in large flocks, and not in coveys consisting only of a single family. If you wish to try the experiment of rearing some of these birds, you have only to get fifteen or twenty of the eggs through some poulterer from France or Guernsey, or from Suffolk, and to set them under a common hen. They will be hatched in about the same time as pheasants, and the young birds require exactly the same treatment.
I do not think I need say any thing of the other kinds of game birds common in England, as you are not very likely to go out shooting; and they are too wild to suffer themselves to be approached.