THE SWIMMINCr, Oil NATATORIAL GKOUr, 177 



In some parts of modern Italy, the goose is 

 in little request for the table, though the sys- 

 tem of plucking off its feathers while alive, 

 is still continued. 



In ancient Egypt, both the common and a 

 distinct species, the Egyptian goose, or Vul- 

 panser, {Chenalopex j3^gyptiac%is,) were kept 

 tame and reared in vast numbers, as frequent 

 paintings and sculptured representations of 

 these birds attest. Herodotus says, that the 

 Chenalopex* was sacred in Egypt. But the 

 author of Egyptian Antiquities, observing that 

 it is of frequent occurrence on the sculptures, 

 does not consider it to have been a sacred bird ; 

 " unless (he adds) it may have some claim to 

 that honour from having been a favourite arti- 

 cle of food for the priests." A place in Upper 

 Egypt had its name Chenoboscion, or Cheno- 

 boscia, goose-pens, from these animals being 

 fed there, probably for sale, though these may 

 have been sacred geese; for we are told that the 

 goose was a bird under the care of Isis. 



The Chenalopex, or Egyptian goose^ is abun- 

 dant in a wild state, along the banks of the Nile, 

 and is distributed over the whole of Africa ; 



* This word means fox-goose, a name given in allusion to 

 the bird''* cunning. 



