570 THE FEATHEREJ) TRIHES. 



geese are driven annually to London to supply the markets, among tliem all the 

 superannuated geese and ganders (called the car/mags), which, by a long course of 

 plucking, prove uncommonly tough and dry. The feathers are a considerable article of 

 commerce ; those from Somersetshire arc esteemed^ the best, and (hose from Ireland 

 the worst." 



This wretched practice is still continued in many places. The annual mortality among 

 "■eese where this system prevails, as in Lincolnshire and Ireland, is very great, and the 

 birds that live through several operations become thin, feverish, and scarcely fit, or 

 rather positively unfit, to eat. The excuse made for this barbarity is that the feathers 

 thus obtained are superior in elasticity to those plucked from the dead bird ; besides 

 which a live one will constantly renew its plumage to undergo repeated strippings, and 

 thus bring an increase of the profit without the destruction of the suffering birds. 



Of the attachment of geese to particular persons there are man\- instances, of which 

 the following is not a little remarkable : — A farmer, in Cheshire, had a fiock of these 

 birds, one of which, at the end of three years, and without an}- apparent cause, began to 

 show a great partiality for its master. At first quitting its companions in the barn-yard, 

 or pond, it stalked after him, and these symptoms of regard becoming daily stronger, in 

 a short time it was at his heels, whether he went to the mill, tlie blacksmith's shop, or 

 through the bustling streets of a neighbouring town. So great, indeed, was its perse- 

 verance, that he was compelled to fasten up the bird \vhenever he wished to go out alone. 



As the farmer was accustomed to hold the plough, the goose walked sedately, not with 

 the usual waddling pace of his tribe, but with a firm step, the head elevated, and the 

 neck erect, a .short way before its ma.ster, in the line of the furrows, freipiently turning 

 round and looking at him intently. When the plough was turned at the end of one 

 farrow, the "oose without losing its step, adroitly wheeled about, continued his attendance 

 till evening, and then followed the farmer home. A^'hen allowed, it would mount on his 

 hip as he sat by the fire after dark, and show the strongest signs of affection, nestling its 

 head in his bosom, or preening the hair of his head with its beak, as it was wont to do 

 its own feathers. 



Sometimes the farmer would go out shooting; and no sooner had he shouldered his gun 

 tlian the ooose was at his side, following him as before, in spite of every obstacle ; getting 

 over the fences, as the farmer said, as well as he could himself. All this, it should be 

 observed, continued, not only without any encouragement on the part of the farmer, but 

 notwithstanding his determined opposition. And how long it would have remained wc 

 cannot tell; for unhappily, wonderful as was the attachment oi' this bird, the farmei' super- 

 stitiouslv thought it foreboded some evil, and, in a moment of alarm, killed this attached 

 and fiiithful companion. 



THK SNOW (:OOSE.* 



Tlie colour of this goose is white; the quills pitch-black, their shafts wliite towards 

 the base; the head glossed with ferruginous, the tint in some individuals extending to 

 the neck and middle of the belly ; the bill, feet, and orbits are of aurora-red. 



The Snow goose feeds chiefly on rushes, insects, ^c., and in tlie autunni on berries. 

 Wilson says, it tears up the roots of I'eeds, and other vegetables, from (he marshes like the 

 hof^s, its powerful, strongly-serrated bill becoming for this purpose a most useful instru- 

 ment. Of the berries, the crow-berry appears to be the favourite. 



According to J)r. IMcliards(m, this species breeds in ihc barien grounds of Arctic 

 America in great numbers ; their eggs are of a yellowish-white colour. At the end of 

 Au'nist the young fly, and all have departed southward by the middle of September; 



' AiiMi llypcrbuicUi. 



