THE nOAII-.sTTf OOOSE. •'jGD 



descending on fields of n(^\vly- sprung- wheat, wliich with the b'ades of fine grasses, trefoil, 

 and grain, constitute its food. Its nest is made on heathy spots, and in marshes, upon 

 tussocks of rushes and dried herbs. There arc five or six eggs, sometimes more, but 

 rarely twelve or fourteen, of a dirty-greenish, or, as Gould i-emarks, of a sullied white. 



THE EOMESTIC GOOSE. 



The domestic goose is a bird of no little value. Not only does it figure witli acceptance 

 at the table, but its feathers are of great commercial worth, and for the sake of them 

 alone thousands are kept in different counties, in order to meet, in some measure, tlie 

 demands of the market, which, nevertheless, receives supplies from foreign parts. 



"Tame geese," writes Pennant, "are kept in vast multitudes in the fens of Lincoln- 

 shire ; a single person has frequently a thousand old geese, each of which will rear seven, 

 so that towards the end of the season he will become master of eight thousand. During 

 the breeding season these birds are lodged in the same houses with the inhabitants, 

 and even in their very bod-chambers ; in every apartment are three rows of coarse wicker 

 pens, placed one above another ; each bird has its separate lodge divided from the other, 

 which it keeps possession of during the time of sitting. A person called a r/ozznn/, i.e. 

 goose-herd, attends the flock, and twice a day drives the whole to water, then brings 

 them back to their habitations, heljnng those that live in the upper stories to their nests, 

 without ever misplacing a single bird." These birds are reared now in other places also. 

 The ilessrs. Boyce, of Stratford, have pens capable of holding four thousand geese. 



Hue nu.r Ours is the name of a. street in Paris, formerly called Rue (lu.r Oir.f, 

 term for geese, and was given to it on account of the great number of rofis^enrri that 

 resided in it. Thus, the authors of the " Dictionnaire Ilistorique de la Yille de Paris" 

 say : — " The capons of Mans, the pullets of Mezerai, fattened by art, the chickens of 

 faux, and a thousand other luxuries, were absolutely unkno^vn in those old times of 

 moderation and contenance, when good morals prevailed, and our fathers, less sensual and 

 delicate than the present generation, regaled themselves upon geese, a kind of fowl des- 

 pised in an age where sensuality and gluttony have the ascendancy." 



In France the goose has long been in little repute as a dish, and seldom appears on the 

 tables of the epicures of Paris. The flesh they condemn as coarse and unwholesome, and 

 our ordinary' accompaniment of apple-sauce, when mentioned, never fails to elicit flashes 

 of astonishment subsiding into peals of laughter. But the wings and thighs of geese 

 made into pies, and properly truffled, are regarded as great delicacies. The department 

 of Perigord, with Toulouse and Bayonne, used to cook annually about 120,000 of these 

 pies. The ^;n/e dr foie gms is still in great requisition in France. But to obtain the 

 delicacy great cruelty is practised. The wretched geese are nailed by the feet to a board, 

 placed before a hot fire, crammed with food, and supplied with drink ; and it is in this 

 dreadful situation, that while fear wastes away their flesh, the liver becomes enormously 

 swollen, and thus supplies the desideratum for those " who live to eat." 



A barbarous practice, however, has long prevailed among ourselves. Thus Pennant 

 says : " The geese are plucked five times in the year ; the first plucking is at Lady-day, 

 for fathers and quills, and the same is renewed four times more between that and 

 Jlichaelmas for feathers only. The old geese submit quietly to the operation, but the 

 young ones are verj- noisj' and ^mrul}^ I once saw this performed, and observed that 

 goslings of six weeks old were not spared ; for their tails were plucked, as I was told, to 

 habituate them early to what they are to come to. If the season prove cold, numbers 

 of the geese die by this barbarous custom. When the flocks are numerous, about ten 

 pluckers are employed, each with a coarse apron up to his chin. Vast numbers of 



