57* 



GREY LAG GOOSE. Class II. 



even in their very bed-chambers : in every apart- 

 ment are three rows of coarfr wicker pens, pla- 

 ced one above another ; each bird has its feparate 

 lodge divided from the other, which it keeps pof- 

 feflion of during the time of fitting. A peribn, 

 called a Gozzard, i. e. Goofe-berd, attends the flock, 

 and twice a day drives the whole to water; then 

 brings them back to their habitations, helping 

 thofe that live in the upper ftories to their nefts, 

 without ever mifplacing a fingle bird. 

 Featheis. The geefe are plucked five times in the year: 

 the firit plucking is at Lady-Day, for feathers and 

 quils, and the fame is renewed, for feathers only, 

 four times more between that and Michaelmas. 

 The old geefe fubmit quietly to the operation, but 

 the young ones are very noify and unruly. I once 

 faw this performed, and obferved, that goflins of 

 fix weeks old were not fpared ; for their tails 

 were plucked, as I was told, to habituate them 

 early to what they were to come to. If the feafon 

 proves cold, numbers of the geefe die by this 

 barbarous cuftom. At the time, about ten pluck- 

 ers are employed, each with a coarfe apron up to 

 his chin. 



Vaft numbers of geefe are driven annually to 

 London to fupply the markets, among them all 

 the fuperannuated geefe and ganders (called here 

 Cagmags) which, by a long courfe of plucking, 

 prove uncommonly tough and dry. 



The feathers are a confiderable article of com- 

 merce ; 



