411 



DUCKS. 



411 



toh i* coar*. Towards winter, he adds, they collect in great flock*, 

 bat in all arasona litre and feed in Uw fen*. 



The tarn* gooM u very long lived. " A corUin Mood of cure " 

 Mllughl.y who relate* tho .t..ry "of undoubted fidelity, told 

 u* thmt hi* father bad ooee agooae that waa known to be 80 yearn old, 

 which for ought be knew might bar* lived the other 80 yean, bad 

 be not been constrained to kill it for iU mischievousness in beating 

 and destroying the younger greae." 



It u one of the most useful uf binU to man, whether we consider 

 it. fleafa or ite feather*. " Tame gee**," write* Pennant, "are kept in vast 

 multitude, in the frn of Lincolnshire ; a aingle penon bu frequently 

 1000 old geeae, each of which will rear seven, ao that towards the end 

 of the aeaaon he will become maater of 8000. I beg leave to repeat 

 her* a part of the history of their economy from my tour in Scotland, 

 in order to complete my account During the breeding season these 

 birds are lodged in the same houses with the inhabitant*, and even in 

 their very bed-chambers ; in every apartment ore three rows of coarse 

 wicker pens, placed one above another; each bird has its separate lodge 

 divided from the other, which it keep* possession of during the time 

 of sitting. A person called a Gouard, that is, Goose-Herd, attends 

 the flock, and twice a day drives the whole to water ; then brings 

 them back to their habitations, helping those that live in the upper 

 stories to their nests, without ever misplacing a single bird. The 

 nan are plucked five times in the year ; the first plucking is at Lady- 

 Day, for feathers and quills, and the same is renewed four times more 

 between that and Michaelmas for feathers only. The old geese 

 nil. nut quietly to the operation, but the young ones are very noisy and 

 unruly. I once saw this performed, and observed that gosling of six 

 weeks old were not spared ; for their tails were plucked, as I wag 

 told, to habituate them early to what they are to come to. If the 

 season prove cold, numbers of the geese die by this barbarous custom. 

 When the flocks are numerous, about ten pluckers are employed, each 

 with a coarse apron up to his chin. Vast numbers of geese are driven 

 annually to London to supply the markets, among them all the super- 

 annuated geese and ganders (called the 'Cagmaga'), which, by a long 

 course of plucking, prove uncommonly tough and dry. The feathers 

 are a considerable article of commerce ; those from Somersetshire 

 are esteemed the best, and those from Ireland the worst." 



The liver seems to bave been a favourite morsel with epicures in 

 all ages, and their invention appears to have been active in exercising 

 the means of increasing the volume of that organ. The pAte* do foie 

 d'oie de Strasbourg is not mere in request now than were the great 

 goose-liven in the time of the Romans. (Pliny, ' Hist,' lib. x. c. 

 82, Ac.) 



A. ttgttvm, the Bean-Goose, one of the wild geese, Anat ttgtlum, 

 Gmelin, Anter ftrtu, Ray. It is to be ditini:ui.-lir.l from the last 

 species by it* comparatively small and short bill, which is more com- 

 pressed towards the end, and also differ* in colour : for, in the Bean- 

 Goose the base of the under mandible, and also of the upper one, as 

 far as the nostrils, together with tln> nail* of both, are black, the rest 

 of the organ being of a reddish flesh-colour, inclining to orange ; 

 whereas the bill of the Gray-Lag is an orange-red, with the nail gene- 

 rally of a grayish white. The wings moreover in the Bean-Goose 

 reach, when closed, beyond the end of the tail 



Tbt Drsa-Oeest (Aunt wsvtan). 



v gives the following Interacting account of its habite from 

 m*u*l obm i stiun : 

 " In Britain it is well known M a njiilar winter visitant, arriving 



in large bodies from its northern slimmer haunt*, during September 

 or the beginning of October, and seldom taking its final departure 

 Iwfore the end of April or beginning of May. The various flocks, 

 during their residence in this country, bave each their part 

 haunU or feeding districts, to which, on each ensuing season, tl-j 

 invariably return, as I have found to bo the case in Northuml 

 and the southern parts of S.-. .t l.md, where wild geese have been known 

 to frequent certain localities for a continued series of years. The 

 habite of this and the preceding species are very similar, and they 

 show the same vigilance, and use the same means of guarding against 

 surprise : their capture is therefore proportionally difficult, and it is 

 only by stratagem that, when at rest on the ground or feeding, they can 

 t>c approached within gun hot. In stormy weather when they are com- 

 j>elled to fly lower than they usually do, they may be sometime! 

 intercepted from a hedge or bank, situated in the route they are 

 observed to take early in the morning, in passing to their feeding 

 ground. At night they retire to the water, or else (as I have often 

 remarked in Northumberland) to some ridge or bar of sand on the 

 sea-coast, sufficiently distant from the mainland to afford a secure 

 retreat ; and where the approach of an enemy must become visible, 

 or at least audible to their acute organs, before it could endanger 

 their safety. The haunts or feeding-grounds of these birds are more 

 frequently in the higher district* than in the lower and marshy tracts 

 of the country, and they give the preference to open land, or whire. 

 the inclosures are very large. They feed much upon the tender 

 wheat, sometimes injuring these fields to a great extent ; and they 

 frequent also the stubbles, particularly such as are laid down with 

 clover and other grasses. In the early part of spring they often alight 

 upon the newly-sown bean and pea fields, picking up greedily such of 

 the pulae as is left on the surface; and "I am inclined to think that 

 their trivial name hns been acquired from their apparent predilection 

 for this kind of food, rather than from the shape and aspect 

 nail of the upper mandible, to which it has been generally attributed. 

 They usually fly at a considerable elevation, either in a diagonal lino, 

 or in two such lines, opposed to each other, and forming a leading 

 acute angle, like the other species; and when on wing they maintain 

 a loud cackling, in which the voices of the two sexes may be easily 

 distinguished. The rate at which they move, when favoured by a 

 gentle breeze, is seldom less than from 40 to 50 miles an hour, a 

 velocity which enables them to have their roostiug-place far removed 

 from the district they frequent by day. The principal breeding sta- 

 tions, or summer retreat*, of the bean-goose are in countries within the 

 arctic circle : it is said, however, that great numbers breed annually 

 in Harris, and some of the other outermost Western Islands. The nest 

 is made in the marshy grounds, and formed of grasses and other dry 

 vegetable materials; the eggs are white, and from eight to twvlvo 

 in number. The trachea of this species increases in diameter to 

 the middle, and the bronchia; are short and tumid. The deutie 

 lamina) of the sides of the bill ore similar in formation to those 

 A.paluttrit, and form thin sharp cutting edges, and the mannor in 

 which they lock within each other renders tho bill an instrument 

 beautifully adapted for vegetable food." 



In bulk, the Bean-Goose is generally rather less than the Gray- 

 Lag and it is accordingly sometimes called provincially the 

 Small Gray-Goose, but it not uufrequeutly equals the other in size 

 and weight. 



The head and upper part of the neck incline to brown, with a 

 grayish tinge, and the feathers of the latter hue are so disposed as 

 almost to produce a furrowed appearance. The lower part* of the 

 body are a*h-gray, with transverse darker shades ; and the back and 

 scapulars are brown, with a gray tinge, the feathers being edged with 

 white. Wing-coverts gray ; secondaries brown, edged and tipped with 

 primaries gray -black ; rump gray; upper tail-coverts white; 

 tail brown, with tho feathers deeply bordered and tipped with white ; 

 legs and toes irddixli, in, lining to orange, the intensity of the colour 

 varying according to tho bird's age. 



icw, Briwon (Ann* .f-: ; / : i,,liaca, Linnnm*), the Egyptian 

 Goose. It appears to be tho Xr^oA^ijf of the Greeks, and accord- 

 ingly the modern zoologists have named it Cken,,: ,,iiacvt 

 . ' IlinU .,f Europe'). Arwtotle (' IIU. Anim.' lib. v'iii. c . 8) 

 mentions the Chenalojux as a palmiped* bin! haunting the banks of 

 lakes and rivers. Aristophanes names it in two of his comedies, 

 namely, 'Birds,' v. 1295, i.y,istr.' v. !>5. (In tho < Ly.irtrate ' the 

 Ravenna Manuscript reads X,wiA^in,f : but Bekker print* Xu,>*\<iwr,(, 

 tog the Ravenna reading.) Atbenums mention* it with praise on 

 account of it* eggs, as claiming the aecond place in excellen, , 

 r the peacock holding the first (' Deipn.' lib. ii. c. 1, p. 68). M\\nii 

 '. v. c. 80 ; lib. xi. c. 38) notices it, and speaks of it* cunning 



But it i* Herodotus who draws our attention to the bird as one of 



> held nocnxl by the Egyptians (' Hist.' lib. ii. c. 72), and the 



os of modem travellers have fully shown that it was at least 



fourito dish with the priests. It i* impossible to look at the 



Ngyptian paintings and sculptures many will bo found in the British 



lanim, and many more o.pi, ,1 ,n Bowfflm, and other works of the 



une kind -without being struck with the frequent occurrence of 



a represented, both alive and plncked, and prepared for the table. 



i T" f ?T S5S?**S. ' ' ' horo can ^ no doubt - 



The author of the iutereUn g book on Egyptian Antiquities ('Library 



