338 GEESE. 



sopher, had a Goose which took so strong a fancy to him, that 

 it would never willingly leave him by night or day wherever 

 he went the Goose was his companion ; 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 considered it as in some way or other connected 

 with religious feelings, and accordingly, when at last it 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 dresa 

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

 tinguishing its master, for in whatever dress he appeared, the 

 Goose recognised 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 intelligent 

 observers, might have afforded opportunities of ascertaining 

 the extent of so unusual a development of affection. 



