Dated Lincoln And Ely Fens. Dear Cousin, I Suppose I Must Call You So, Though I Declare I Know Not How We Are Related. But, Though I Am Thought So Very Wild And Shy, I Have Still A Kind Of Fellow-Feeling For You; And, If You Have Not Gone To The Spit Before This Comes To You, I Should Be Glad Of Your Reply In A Friendly Way. You Know Very Well That You Are Intended To Be Eaten, And So Are We - When They Can Catch Us. I Understand That You Never Fly And That You Seldom Waddle Above A Meadow'S Length From Your Pond, Where You Keep Puddling And Groping From Daylight Till Dark. This, I Assure You, Is Not The Life That I Lead. We Fly Together In Vast Numbers In The Night, For Many Miles Over This Flat, Wet Country; So, As To Water, We Have An Inexhaustible Store: We May Swim Ourselves Tired. But, I Dare Say, Every Station Of Our Duck-Lives Is Subject To Some Disadvantages And Some Calamities. Thus, With All Our Wildness, We Are Not Secure; For We Are Taken Sometimes By Hundreds In A Kind Of Trap Which Is Called A Decoy. Some Of Our Tribe Have Been Made Tame Like You (But I Hope You Are Not So False-Hearted), And Then Their Masters Feed Them Plentifully, In A Place Contrived On Purpose, With A Narrow Entrance, With Which These Traitor Ducks Are Well Acquainted, So That They Can Pass In And Out At A Place We Strangers Should Never Have Thought Of. They Are Sent Out In The Dusk Of The Evening, When They Soon Join With Large Companies Of Us Strangers; And Knowing, As They Do, Their Way Home, And That They Shall Find Food, They Set Off, Close At Each Other'S Tails, Along A Ditch, Or Watercourse, And We Fools Follow Them. The Entrance, As Far As I Could See Of It, Is Very Narrow; For I Have Been Twice Within A Hair'S Breadth Of Being Caught, And Do Not Pretend To Know All About It; But I Wish Heartily That Every Duck And Drake In The Country - Ay, And Every One Of Our Allies, The Geese, Too, Could Say As Much - Could Say That "They Had Twice Been On The Verge Of Destruction By Keeping Bad Company, But Had Escaped." What Becomes Of My Companions, When Taken, I Think I Have Heard Pretty Accurately; For There Is Somewhere A Very Large Assemblage Of Fellow-Creatures To Those Who Catch Us, And Whose Demand Seems Never To Be Satisfied. Well, Never Mind, Cousin; I Am Determined To Fly, And Swim Too, As Long As I Can, And I Advise You To Do The Same, And Make The Most Of Your Day. Hoping To Hear From You, I Am, Affectionately, Your Wild Cousin.