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I wonder which of our feathered friends it was that they served to me as Roast Duckling last night. During its life, which was by no means as short as the menu suggested, what did it look like ? It might have been a scoter or a scaup, for these sea-going wild duck, formerly deemed unfit for the table, now command a ready market. So, as a matter of fact, does practically any bird. Last year cor- morants were fetching from 5s. to 6s. each, and three Caithness fisher- men with one motorboat made as much as L70 in a week. I know of a Lincolnshire poacher who shot 190 swans last winter and got L2 a head for them, and of a man in Scotland who sold I forget how many sacks of young rooks from one rookery for £47. The tone in oyster- catchers is firm and your last helping of pité maison may have in- cluded almost anything from a missel-thrush to an avocet. I suppose we shall be eating owls next year ; and perhaps, before the present Government goes out of office, we shall have cut out the middleman and got down to mice. They are, after all, a delicacy in South China. Snux.
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