o bind the other
ingredients. Cut some very thin slices of cold ham or bacon, and cover
the birds with them, then wrap them in sheets of paper well buttered,
put them on the spit, and roast them before a clear fire.

TO ROAST ORTOLANS.

With all the luxury of statesmen dine,
On daily feasts of _ortolans_ and wine.
CAWTHORN.

Put into every bird an oyster, or a little butter mixed with some
finely sifted breadcrumbs. Dredge them with flour. Run a small skewer
through them, and tie them on the spit. Baste them with lard or fresh
butter. They will be done in ten minutes. Reed birds are very fine made
into little dumplings with a thin crust of flour and butter, and boiled
about twenty minutes. Each must be tied in a separate cloth.

WOODCOCKS.

And as for your juries--who would not set o'er them
A jury of tasters, with _woodcocks_ before them?
MOORE.

Woodcocks should not be drawn, as the trail is by the lovers of "haut
gout" considered a "bonne bouche." Truss their legs close to the body,
and run an iron skewer through each thigh, and put them to roast before
the fire; toast a slice of bread for each bird, lay them in the
dripping-pan under the bird to catch the trail; baste them with butter,
and froth them with flour; lay the toast on a hot dish, and the birds on
the toast; pour some good beef gravy into the dish, and send some up in
a boat. Twenty or thirty minutes will roast them. Some epicures like
this bird very much underdone, and direct that the woodcock should be
just introduced to the cook, for her to show it to the fire, then send
it to table.

BIRDS POTTED.

"It tastes of the _bird_, however," said the old woman, "and she
cooked the _rail of the fence_ on which the crow had been sitting."

When birds have come a great way, they often smell so bad that they can
scarcely be borne from the rankness of the butter, by managing them in
the following manner, they may be as good as ever. Set a large saucepan
of clean water on the fire, when it boils take off the butter at the
top, then take the fowls out one by one, throw them in the saucepan of
water half a minute, whip it out, and dry it in a cloth inside and out,
continue till they are all done; scald the pot clean, when the birds are
quite cold, season them with mace, pepper, and salt according to taste,
put them down close in a pot, and pour clarified butter over them.

LARKS.