246 REPTILES AND BIRDS. 
race, and is probably the progenitor of our domestic bird. Its upper 
- parts are of an ashen brown, the lower portions of a dark grey. An 
adult bird is almost three feet long. 
The Domestic or Common Goose (Auser sylvestris) has been made 
the source of great utility and profit. It appears to be the civilised 
offspring of the Grey-lag Goose, to which it bears the same propor- 
tions as other tame animals bear to their prototypes. Mr. Yarrell 
was of opinion that the White-fronted Goose (Amser albifrons) has 
concurred, with the Avzser ferus, in producing our domestic race. 
In our poultry-yards the Domestic Goose begins, in the month of 
March, to lay from eight to twelve eggs. Incubation lasts for a 
month. No birds are more easily reared than goslings ; they issue 
from the shell full of life and covered with a delicate down. It is, 
however, necessary to keep them shut up for the first few days ; if 
the weather permits, they may soon be released. ‘Their first food is 
a paste formed of barley roughly ground, mixed with bran, mois- 
tened, and boiled in milk, with the addition of a few chopped-up 
lettuce leaves. When at large, it is necessary to keep them carefully 
from hemlock and other poisonous plants. 
Our ancestors, the Celts, the Gauls, and the Franks, reared a 
large number of these birds, and carried on a considerable trade in 
them, especially with Italy. Pliny, in his “‘ Natural History,” relates 
that he has seen immense droves of geese, which were making their 
way towards Rome from different districts of Gaul, but especially 
from the country of the Morini (now forming the departments of the 
Nord and Pas de Calais). The conductors of these feathered flocks 
were in the habit of placing the tired ones in front, so that, being 
pushed forward by the whole column behind them, they were forced 
to move on in spite of themselves. In the present day, numerous 
flocks of geese are driven in the same manner into Spain from the 
French departments of Lot, Dordogne, Lot-et-Garonne, Gers, 
Tarn, &c. 
The Goose, in its coarse and somewhat democratic condition, was 
good enough food for the Romans of the Republic; but at a later 
period, when the people became more refined in their tastes, they 
invented a barbarous method of fattening it. By depriving them of 
water, movement, and light, an extraordinary development of the 
liver was produced, which gave them a particularly savoury flavour. 
This invention—the triumph of modern gastronomy—dates as far 
back as the days of Augustus and Varro ; indeed, two persons of 
consular dignity disputed the honour of being its originator. 
In order to fatten geese in this way, an abundant supply of food 
