222 BIRDS IN LEGEND 



or as a whimsical answer to some inquisitive child, then 

 repeated as amusing, and finally quoted seriously. Others 

 have been brought to us from the old world by early 

 farmer-immigrants — French in Canada, Louisiana and 

 New England, Dutch in New York, Swedish and German 

 in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, Spanish in the South- 

 west, and so on — and have been applied to our native 

 birds, where often they fail to fit. A saw that perhaps had 

 some value when told of the European robin or black- 

 bird, is ludicrously inappropriate when said of our black- 

 birds and robins, which are totally different in nature and 

 habits. 



One of the most venerable of these worthless prognos- 

 tics, and one that very likely is a relic of Roman auspices, 

 twenty-five centuries ago, is that of the goose-bone : 



"To read the winter of any year take the breast-bone of a 

 goose hatched during the preceding spring. The bone is trans- 

 lucent, and it will be found to be colored and spotted. The dark 

 color and heavy spots indicate cold. If the spots are of light 

 shade, and transparent, wet weather, rain or snow, may be 

 looked for. 



"If the November goose-bone be thick, 



So will the winter weather be; 



If the November goose-bone be thin, 



So will the winter weather be." 



One need not wonder at the indignant refusal of hard- 

 headed commanders of old who refused to let their strat- 

 egy or tactics to be interfered with by alarmed priests 

 who reported unfavorable auguries from dissected hens. 

 Eusebius records the legend that a bird was presented to 

 Alexander the Macedonian when on the point of setting 

 out for the Red Sea, in order that he might read the 

 auguries according to custom, Alexander killed the bird 



