380 GEESE. 



if he went abroad and walked in the public streets, the 

 bird followed him, and in his own house, always forced 

 itself into his presence. The philosopher, struck with 

 this constant and strange attachment, seems to have con- 

 sidered it as in some way or other connected with reli- 

 gious feelings, and accordingly, when at last he died, he 

 was at the expense of bestowing upon it a magnificent 

 funeral. 



Our next instance occurred in Scotland; a Goose, a 

 year old, formed a similar attachment to a person in 

 Elgin, and would follow him any distance, even through 

 the crowd and bustle of the main street. One day, 

 when going down this street, its master went into a 

 hair-dresser's shop to be shaved, whereupon, the bird 

 waited patiently till the operation was finished, and then 

 accompanied him to the house of a friend, after which 

 it proceeded home with him. Change of dress seemed 

 to make no difference in the bird's powers of distin- 

 guishing its master, for in whatever dress he appeared, 

 the Goose recognized him, and whenever he spoke, it 

 responded by a cry expressive of satisfaction. 



Another similar case is on record in Germany: an 

 aged blind woman, who probably might have been in 

 the habit of feeding it, used to be led every Sunday to 

 church by a Gander, taking hold of her gown with its 

 bill; when she had seated herself, it retired to graze in 

 the churchyard till she came out again, when it led her 

 home. One day, the clergyman called at her house, 

 and, expressing his surprise to her daughter, that her 

 mother should venture abroad, she replied, " Oh, sir! 

 we are not afraid of trusting her out of sight, for the 

 Gander is with her.'* We frankly own, that so strange 

 and improbable do the above stories appear, that we 

 should neither have inserted, nor paid them the slightest 

 attention, had we not the following testimony to their 

 credibility, for the accuracy of which we can vouch; 

 and deeply do we regret, that a better fate did not 

 await so extraordinary a bird, which, under more intelli- 



