40 STORIES ABOUT BIRDS. 



among them made a great quacking, and start- 

 ed off toward the embarrassed goose. When 

 near, the latter stretched her neck out horizon- 

 tally, and to my very great astonishment and 

 admiration, the drake seized the lower part of 

 the tin collar in his beak, the goose withdrew 

 her head from it, and the drake immediately 

 dropped it upon the ground ; when the air rang 

 with the plaudits of the children and the gab- 

 bling of the fowls." 



It seems that there is a very close resem- 

 blance between the tongues of geese and deli- 

 cate human fingers. Some wag in England — 

 as we learn from a London exchange paper — ■ 

 recently took advantage of this fact, which is 

 not very generally known, to play a trick upon 

 the police in the place where he lived. He 

 dropped the tongues of two geese in the shop 

 of a cbeese-dealer. They were picked up and 

 handed over to the police, the whole force of 

 which were immediately on the alert to get to 

 the bottom of the mystery. All the medical 

 men of the district were consulted, and they all 

 agreed that the tongues were the fingers of a 

 young female who had not been accustomed to 

 labor. At length a postman, who was a little 

 wiser in this matter than the rest, pointed out 

 the mistake. 



