GREY-LAG GOOSE. 147 
its own feathers. Sometimes the farmer would go out shooting, 
and no sooner had he shouldered his gun, than his companion 
was at its post, following him as before, in spite of every 
obstacle, ‘getting over,’ to use the man’s own words, ‘the fences 
as well as I could myself.’ All this, it should be observed, 
continued not only without any encouragement on the part 
of the farmer, but even in spite of every discouragement on 
his part. How long it would have continued, or to what 
extent, we lament to add, he effectually precluded the world 
from knowing; for with an unpardonable inattention to so 
truly a wonderful case, in addition to an equally unpardonable 
superstitious fear, he took it into his head that the mysterious 
affection of the Goose foreboded some evil; and in a moment 
of alarm, he killed the faithful bird. 
We can quote another, shewing that a Goose is occasionally 
possessed of a keen sense, enabling her to detect imposition, 
and distinguish her own eggs from others closely resembling 
them. A Goose belonging to a clergyman in Cheshire, was 
set, as it is termed, on six or eight eggs; the dairymaid 
thinking these too few for so large a bird to cover, added 
an equal number of duck’s eggs; the next morning she 
went as usual to see if all was right, when, to her great 
surprise, she found the Goose quiet on her nest, but every 
one of the duck’s eggs picked out and lying on the ground. 
Her mistress directed her to replace them, which was accordingly 
done, but the next morning, on going again to examine 
the nest, she found all the duck’s eggs as before, moved off, 
and lying round about the nest, the Goose’s eggs remaining 
under the sitting bird in perfect order. How long she would 
have persevered in removing them is not known, as, for fear 
of driving the Goose from her nest, the experiment was not 
repeated. 
When once attached to each other they appear to be very 
constant; in proof of which, a person having marked five 
separate Ganders, and five separate Geese with which they 
had paired, found that for three successive years when he 
attended to them, each regularly selected his companion of 
the former year, and continued faithful to her. Why the 
Goose has been so generally pointed out, proverbially, as the 
most foolish of birds, it is difficult to say, for the foregoing, 
as well as the following instances, would lead us to believe 
that they are endowed with a larger, rather than a less portion 
of sense than other birds. 
