Wildfowl

“ Fowlmere is by far the largest of the four heathland meres; it is indeed a respectable-sized sheet of water, forming the much-cherished haunt of numbers of Wildfowl. At one end—although some distance away—is a farmhouse; at the other, runs the "drove." A projecting fir-crowned bluff frowns to the eastward; whilst the western shore is now clothed with thick undergrowth, in which many species of Ducks and water-birds delight to shelter. ”

“ Deeper, darker fall the shadows, and the charmed colours wane,
Fading, as the fay-gold changes into earth and dross again,
Wildfowl stream in swaying files landward to the marshy plain;
Louder sound the forest voices and the deep tones of the main. ”

“ It is not so much that in a wet season wildfowl are less abundant (for they are there in thousands) , as that they are scattered over so vast an area, instead of being concentrated at certain spots, which explains the difficulty of their pursuit and the impossibility of securing any large numbers. ”

“ Donovan, in his 'Natural History of British Birds' (vol. vi. 1809) , states that a specimen occurred to him in the month of January, 1801, among a number of wildfowl exposed for sale in Leadenhall Market. It was a male, and was supposed to have been taken in the fens of Lincolnshire. More than one species (e.g. the American Wigeon) has been admitted into the British list on claims no stronger than this. We may safely assume that a hundred years ago no wildfowl came imported for the table into the London market from the other side of the Atlantic. ”

“ Here are said to be great plenty and variety of wildfowl, namely yemmas, macaws (which are called here jackoos, and are a larger sort of parrot, and scarcer) parrots, parakeets, flamingos, carrion-crows, chattering-crows, cockrecoes, bill-birds finely painted, corresoes, doves, pigeons, jenetees, clocking-hens, crab-catchers, galdens, currecoos, muscovy ducks, common ducks, widgeons, teal, curlews, men-of-war birds, boobies, noddies, pelicans, etc. ”

“ Your real clever wildfowler of the shore is not born, he is made by a lifetime of experience. He and a new-comer may start out in opposite directions, and the local may in a night and a day kill far more widgeon and duck than he can carry home at two goes (most likely he will take them in a boat) , and your new-comer without assistance may never have been within shot of fowl all the time, and probably will only escape the rising tide by the help of Providence. ”

“ Before Breydon was walled [2] and the rivers banked, and the vast stretches of marshes ditched and drained, the extensive level of swamp must have been at most hours of the tide a very paradise for the wildfowl, and those who sought them. "It would be difficult to imagine," wrote the Messrs. Paget in 1834, "a spot more suitable to their (the wildfowls') habits than Breydon affords, consisting as it does of a sheet of water some miles in extent, with shallow borders, or flats (as they are called) , and surrounded, almost as far as the eye can reach, by marshes. ”

“ The imported gulls, ducks and geese and moorhens, which number seven or eight hundred, never wander from the Serpentine, and are always ready to welcome pieces of bread or biscuit, have become the most domesticated, and therefore the most commonly known. The wildfowl live largely on fish, which accounts for these seldom reaching more than three ounces in weight in the Serpentine. There is no place in the length and breadth of England where birds are so certain of being unmolested as in London, in spite of its six or seven million inhabitants, and on the whole they thrive well. ”

“ I have dozens of times put up a peregrine over ponds and marshes where teal and ducks were sitting together, and [29] then flushed the wild fowl all simultaneously. In every case without any exception the first bird overhauled and brought to the ground has been a teal and in the case of a long flight, when every bird has been flying for its life, the further they go the further the teal lag behind the wild ducks. The same remarks apply to woodcock and snipe, to black game and grouse, to pheasants and partridges—all of which I have flushed simultaneously in front of hawks. ”

“ Kildians mainly consists of the feathers and [28] eggs of wild-fowl, to procure which they are obliged to hang suspended from ropes over the most dreadful precipices, in the clefts and along the otherwise inaccessible ledges of which the sea-fowl breed, will have no difficulty in understanding the general drift of the island maid’s very spirited and very earnest song. It is, perhaps, unnecessary to say that as ling, conger, hake, and grey-fish are certain kinds of sea fish, so fulmar, guillemot, kittiwake, puffin, and scart are certain kinds of web-footed sea-fowl. ”

“ A few moorhens creep under the aquatic grasses and conceal themselves beneath the bushes, water-voles hide among the flags, but the once extensive host of waterfowl and river life has been reduced to the smallest limits. Water-fowl cannot breed because they are shot on the nest, or their eggs taken. As for rarer birds, of course they have not the slightest chance. The fish have fared better because they have received the benefit of close seasons, enforced with more or less vigilance all along the river. ”

“ Wild fowl, quacking hordes of them, nest in the tulares. Any day's venture will raise from open shallows the great blue heron on his hollow wings. Chill evenings the mallard drakes cry continually from the glassy pools, the bittern's hollow boom rolls along the water paths. ”

“ Brains parboiled in salt and water to harden them are another good substitute for sweetbreads, and offer one more change from the perpetual joint and fowls that are on every table.
Game and Poultry.—A young fowl has large feet, knees, and neck in proportion to its size, and its thighs look white or pinkish. An old one has thin, scraggy legs and purplish tinge on its thighs; the scales look hard and horny, and often there are long hairs on the skin. If the beak is on, it should be soft, and so with the breast bone, which is frequently broken by the poulterer to give the bird a plump appearance. ”

“ On April 12 I found another male in the market; the next day I purchased a pair from a sportsman in Deering; and on April 17 detected another male in the market. That the bird’s occurrence in such numbers is very unusual there can be no doubt. In fact, so far as I have been able to learn, our most experienced hunters of wild fowl either knew the species only by tradition, before this year, or else were wholly unacquainted with it. ”

“ With them, on these retaliatory sallies, goes that most intrepid of{185} sea-fowl, the skua—one of the many birds that the sailor calls “molly-hawks,” and that the lesser creatures dread like a bird of prey. For such it really is, living chiefly upon the fish the other birds have caught, upon the birds themselves, and during the nesting season upon the eggs and young of all species indiscriminately: so reckless in attack that nothing on wings dares to oppose it, and so powerful that full-grown gulls, if they persist in the fight, succumb to it. ”

“ It is only in the very wildest and worst of nights and days that wild fowling is at its best. There must be snow for choice, and frost also, even on the seashore. In fact, the weather must be so hard that the fowl can only feed on mud flats that are tide-washed, for the reason that everywhere else the ground is too hard, and too much covered with snow and ice, to enable ducks to reach the mud bottoms of fresh water, or to enable widgeon and teal and geese to feed elsewhere at all. ”

“ As soon as it espies its prey, it glides silently into the air, and, sweeping easily and rapidly down, seizes it in its claws. When disturbed, it makes a short circuit, and soon settles on another perch. It builds its nest on a tree, of short sticks, lining it sparingly with deer’s hair. The eggs, from three to five in number, are equal in size to those of the domestic fowl, and have a greenish-white colour, with a few large dark brown blotches at the thick end. ”

“ This Jungle-fowl ranges from North-Eastern and Central India to Hainan, and from Sumatra to the Philippines, Celebes, and Timor; frequenting thickets and forests up to five thousand feet, but often flocking to cultivated country, where it feeds upon leaves, seeds, insects, and especially grain. Pugnacious towards its kin [155] it is timid with man, running with great speed or taking refuge in trees; the flight consists of alternate periods of flapping and sailing, while the cluck of the hen and the crow of the cock resemble those of domestic fowls, though the latter is less prolonged. ”

“ Before proceeding to the description of these birds it is well to observe that it will be found the better way, in approaching them, as indeed all wild fowl, to work, if possible, up wind to them; not that wild fowl have the power, as some pretend, of scenting the odor of the human enemy on the tainted gale, as is undoubtedly the case with deer and many other quadrupeds, but that their hearing is exceedingly acute, and that their heads are pricked up to listen, at the occurrence of the least unusual sound, and at the next moment—hey, presto!—they are off. ”

“ Sea-fowl usually feed by night, when, in all their multitudes, they come down to graze on the savannahs of the shore. As the sonorous cloud advances, the attentive fowler listens which way they bend their course:—perhaps he has the mortification to hear them alight at too great a distance for his gun to reach them ”

“ If they are not, they will inevitably wend their way elsewhere. The discharge of one shot at night, with its accompaniment of flame, and its noise reverberating more horribly in the still and silent hours, will do more to frighten away the marsh ducks than any amount of daylight shooting. As the night begins to fall, the fowl begin to seek the marshes. They rise from the open water where they have been resting, perhaps without being able to feed at all, and move towards the shore, coming on in a steady unbroken flight, until they have all found nesting and feeding grounds in the shoal water. ”

“ The lesser, or Web footed, Fowl, always haunt drowned Fens, as likewise the main streams of Rivers not subject to Freeze, the deeper and broader, the better; (tho' of these the Wild-Goose and Barnacle, if they cannot sound the depth, and reach the Ouze, change their Residence for shallow places, and delight in Green Winter Corn, especially if the Lands ends have Water about them:) Small Fowl also frequent hugely little Brooks, Ponds, drowned Meadows, Pastures, Moors, Plashes, Meres, Loughs, and Lakes, stored with unfrequented Islands, Shrubs, &c. ”

“ These birds also build their nests on low bushes or stumps, and are thus easily captured. During the breeding season the male and female relieve each other with great regularity, and guard their nests so carefully that they fall an easy prey to the fowler; as in the case of one bird being taken its companion is sure to be found there shortly after. They were also captured with birdlime, or shot with arrows, the fowler concealing himself near an open space, on which some soi, their favourite food, had been scattered. ”

“ If neglected and abused, they become shy and wild. The most striking peculiarities of the fowl are the fleshy comb and wattles which ornament the head, and the full tail which is usually carried well up and spread perpendicularly. The head appendages vary much in size and form. They are sometimes very small, but never entirely wanting. The carriage of the tail also varies, but except in a few breeds bred especially for low tails it is noticeably high as compared with that of other poultry. Fowls [Pg 33] are readily distinguished from other birds by the voice. ”

“ Lifted far above all harm of fowler or impediment of mountain, wild fowl are steadily flying southward. The simple sight of them fills the imagination with pictures. They have all summer long called to each other from the reedy fens and wild oat-fields of the far north. ”

“ If the Buff Plymouth Rock is an ideal bird in her feathers, she is even more so plucked. All white-feathered fowl, in spite of yellow legs, look cadaverous when picked. All dark-feathered fowl, with their tendency to green legs and black pin-feathers, look spotted, long dead, and unsavory. ”

“ When in want of Food, he goes into the Sea, where he lies in such a manner, that the upper Part of his Back appears above the Water, and looks like a piece of Timber floating; the wild Fowls mistrusting nothing, come so near it, that he immediately devours them: They lurk among Reeds and Bushes, on the Banks of Rivers and great Pools, from whence they suddenly leap out, and eat up their Prey, which sometimes happens to be People that come to drink or fetch Water. ”

“ But the wily savage has not yet done with them. He avails himself of the extraordinary attachment which these birds have for one another, and, fastening a wounded one to a tree, so that its cries may induce its companions to return, he watches his opportunity by throwing his kiley or spear to add another bird or two to the booty he has already obtained.
MODE OF KILLING WILD-FOWL.
The various kinds of wild-fowl with which the rivers and lagoons of Australia abound afford a never-failing supply of food to the natives, and many are the arts to which they have recourse to entrap these wary birds. ”

“ In the Fire Circle White splashes of foam clipped and swayed on the slate-blue waters. A hundred yards out from the rushes a clay-hued slash across the turmoiled face of the bay marked the yellow sand-bar beneath. Between the sand-bar and the rushes lay the wild celery bed. Here, shoots succulent and tender, sweetest of morsels to the man-hunted, fear-haunted fowl of the Wild, gripped the oozy muck below. ”