3G2 



THE BERXACLE GOOSE. 



These birds are kept in vast quantites in the fens of Lincolnshire 

 several persons there having as many as a thousand 

 breeders. They are bred for the sake of their quills 

 and feathers ; for which they are stripped while 

 alive, once in the year for the quills, and five times 

 for the feathers. 



However simple in appearance, or awkward in 

 g(;sture, the Goose may be, it is not without many 

 marks both of sentiment and understanding. The 

 Cft'urage with which it protects its offspring and 

 defends itself against ravenous birds, and certaiD 

 instances of attachment and even of gratitude, 

 "which have been observed in it, render our general 

 contempt of the Goose ill-founded. 



IhJtS eBJ»A GOOSB. 



THE BERXACLE GOOSE. 



The usual weight of this bird is about five pounds. The bill is short 

 and black, crossed with a fiesh-colored mark on each side. Part of tlio 

 head, the chin, throat, and under parts of the body, and the upper tail- 

 covcrts are white ; and the rest of the head and neck, and the begiiining 

 of the back, are black. The thighs are mottled. Round the knee this 

 feathers are black ; and the lower featbe)"s of the back are the same, 

 edsred with white The winLT-coverts and scapulars are blue gray. 

 Of »!•. the marvellous productions which ignorance, ever credulous^ 



has substituted for the 

 simple and truly won- 

 derful operations of 

 nature, perhaps the 

 most absurd is the 

 assertion that this spe- 

 cies of Goose grows in 

 a kind of shell, called 

 Lejms imaiifera, (Goose- 

 bearing shell) on certain 

 trees on the coast of 

 Scotland and the Ork- 

 neys, or on the rotten 

 timbers of old ships. 



In winter Bernacle 

 Geese are not uncom- 

 mon on many of the 

 northern and western 

 coasts of Great Britain ; 

 but they are scarce in 

 the south, and are 

 there s e 1 d o m seen 

 except in inclement 



BXKNACLE GOOBE. 



seasons. 



