198 WILD AND TAME GOOSE. 



But it is well known, that at least our species has no 

 song whatever. Swans were formerly in great request 

 as food, but, in this respect, they have been long super- 

 seded by the goose. The young ones, or cygnets, are 

 now sometimes, but not often, served up at table. These 

 birds, on the river Thames, are considered royal property ; 

 and it is accounted felony even to steal their eggs. 

 Swans, it is said, sometimes live to the great age of a 

 hundred years and upwards. 



The principal distinction betwixt the Hooper and the 

 Tame Swan consists in the former having the cere of its 

 bill yellow, and the latter black. 



Wild and Tame Goose. The flight of Wild Geese 

 is somewhat extraordinary, being generally in flocks 

 of thirty or upwards in number, at a great height in the 

 air, and always in regular order ; either forming a 

 straight line, or an angular figure, like the letter V. 

 The leader, who, it is said, occupies the point of the 

 angle, retires when fatigued io the rear, and the next 

 in station succeeds to his duty. They are noisy and 

 clamorous during their flight, and may be heard even 

 when at a height beyond the reach of human vision. 

 They are found in nearly all the countries of the north 

 of Europe, Asia, and America; but in England are 

 nowhere so numerous as in the fens of Lincolnshire 

 and Cambridgeshire. Here they breed, and continue 

 through the whole year. Tame Geese also are extremely 

 numerous in Lincolnshire, where they are bred and reared 

 for the sake of their quills and feathers. These constitute 

 a great article of traffic ; and the birds are kept in such 

 flocks, that one person has sometimes more than a thou- 

 sand breeders. The feathers are plucked off from the 

 Geese whilst alive, and this cruel operation is performed 



