46 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



of mastery over them, and every day as evening ap- 

 proached he began to try to lead and, failing in that, 

 to drive them to the enclosures and buildings. The 

 keeper, curious to see how far this would go, began to 

 relax his efforts and to go round later and later each 

 evening, and as his efforts slackened the gander's zeal 

 increased, until he was left to do the whole work him- 

 self and all the keeper had to do was to go round and 

 shut the doors. This state of things had now con- 

 tinued for some years, and the old wild goose was the 

 acknowledged leader and master of all the birds on the 

 farm. 



The story of this wise gander, its readiness in adapt- 

 ing itself to a wholly new way of life and in taking in 

 the situation — the danger by night and need of some- 

 one in authority over that heterogeneous crowd of birds 

 who had lost the power of flight, and, from being looked 

 after, had grown careless of their own safety — and, 

 finally, the taking of it all on himself, putting himself 

 in office as it were, may strike us as very strange, but 

 it agrees well enough with the character of the bird as 

 we know it in its domestic condition. It is common to 

 hear of the masterful old gander at farm-houses, the 

 ruler and sometimes tyrant of the farmyard. I have 

 myself observed and have heard of many instances of 

 long-lasting and exceedingly bitter feuds between an 

 imperious gander and some other member of the 

 feathered community, a turkey cock or Muscovy duck 

 or peacock who refused to be governed by a goose. But 

 I was specially pleased to have had this story of the 



