however, is reduced one half after it is cleaned. When pure it is sold in Lapland for two rix dollars a pound. The Iceland Company at Copenhagen generally export from Iceland about one thousand five hundred, or two thousand pounds weight of this down, besides what is privately purchased by foreigners.

The Greenlanders kill these birds with darts; pursuing them in their little boats, watching their course by the air bubbles when they dive, and always striking them when they rise to the surface wearied. The flesh is valued as food, and their skins are made into warm and comfortable under-garments.

THE Wild Duck, which is the parent stock of the Tame, frequents marshy places in several parts of the kingdom, but especially in Lincolnshire, where they are annually taken in immense numbers. Nearly thirty-two thousand have been taken in ten Duck decoys, in the short period of one season. Yet, though so many are taken, it is an artful bird, and will choose for its nest such a spot as is least likely to be suspected. It will even lay its eggs in high trees, far from the water, and carry the young to the water in its bill.

The COMMON DUCK, of which there are about ten different sorts, is so universally known as to require no description. It is the most easily reared of all our domestic animals. The very instinct of the young ones directs them to their favourite element, and though they are conducted by a hen, they despise the admonition of their leader. The feet of the Tame Duck are black.

It is usual to lay Duck eggs under a hen, because she hatches them better than the original parent would have done. The Duck seems to be a heedless inattentive mother; she frequently leaves her eggs till they spoil, and even seems to forget that she is entrusted with the charge: she is equally regardless of them when excluded; she leads them to the pond, and thinks she has sufficiently provided for her offspring when she has shown them the water. Whatever advantages may be procured by coming near the house, or attending in the yard, she declines them all; and often lets the vermin which haunt the waters destroy them, rather than take shelter nearer home. The hen is a nurse of a very opposite character; she broods with the utmost assiduity, and generally brings forth a young one from every egg committed to her charge; she does not lead them to the water indeed, but she carefully guards them when there, by standing at the brink. Should the rat or the weasel attempt to seize them, the hen instantly gives them protection; she leads them to the house when tired with paddling, and rears up the supposititious brood, without ever suspecting that they belong to another.

In China artificial heat is employed to hatch the major part of the Ducks. The eggs are laid in boxes of sand, and placed on a brick hearth, which is heated to a proper temperature. After they are hatched, they are fed for a fortnight, at the expiration of which period they can provide for themselves.

THE Crested Grebe is about the size of a duck. Its bill, that part especially towards the head, is of a reddish colour, and is somewhat more than two inches in length. On the top of the head and neck, is a beautiful crest of feathers, those on the neck appearing like a collar or ruff, and seeming a good deal bigger than they really are; those on the top of the head are black, those on the sides of the neck are of a reddish or cinereous colour; the back and wings are of a darkish brown, pretty much inclining to black, except some of the exterior edges of the wing feathers, which are white. The breast and belly are of a light ash colour; it has no tail; the legs and toes are broad and flat. It has an unpleasant cry, and will occasionally, when angered or pleased, raise or fall the feathers of his crest.

THIS bird weighs about twenty-two ounces; it has a black nail at the end of the upper mandible of the bill, the other part of which is of a lead colour; the structure of the head and mouth very much resembles the common wild duck, only the head does not seem to be quite so large, in proportion to the body, which also appears of a finer shape, and the wings longer. The crown of the head towards the base of the bill is of a pale pink colour, inclining to a reddish white; the other parts of the head and neck are red; the sides of the body and the upper part of the breast are tinctured with a very fair, glossy, and beautiful claret colour, with a few small transverse lines of black. The feathers on the back are brown, the edges more pale or ash coloured; the scapular feathers, and those under the fore part of the wings, are finely variegated with small transverse black and white lines, beautifully dispersed like waves; the quill feathers are some of them brown, with white tips, others have their outward webs of a blackish purple; other parts, especially those beyond the covert feathers, of a lovely fine blue; some of the exterior feathers have their outward webs inclining to black, with a fine purple gloss upon the borders, of which there are a number

of small light coloured spots; the rest of the wing feathers are of a beautiful party-coloured brown and white. The upper part of the tail is ash coloured; the under part behind the vent, black. The legs and feet are of a dark lead colour, and the claws black. The young of both sexes are gray, and this hue they retain till February, when the plumage of the male begins to assume its variegated tints. He is said to retain his bright colours till the end of July, and then to become dark and gray, so as scarcely to be distinguished from the female.

Widgeons are common in Cambridgeshire, the Isle of Ely, &c. where the male is called the Widgeon, and the female the Whewer. They feed upon wild periwinkles, grass, weeds, &c. which grow at the bottom of rivers and lakes. Their flesh has a very delicious taste, not inferior to teal, or wild ducks.

THIS bird measures from the point of the bill to the end of the tail near eighteen inches, and from the extremity of each wing when extended, upwards of two feet, and weighs about a pound and a half. It has a