THE GOOSE 



265 



and a very luxuriant growth of grass that, like " fatweed, 

 rots itself." A better result is had from a dressing of basic slag, 

 i ton per acre, 14 Ib. per rod (30 J square yards), and, on light land, 

 immediately followed with 5 cwt. of kainit per acre, 3^ Ib. per rod. 

 GOOSE (Anser ferns). The common or Gray-leg goose, at one 

 time common enough in the fenny districts of England, remaining 

 there all the year round, is now rare in this countiy, but its domes- 



FIG. 147. THE COMMON GOOSE. MALE AND FEMALE. 



tication has induced numerous varieties, and greatly added to the 

 fecundity of the bird. When the wild goose was domesticated is 

 uncertain, but the liver of a fat goose, which is often larger than 

 ah 1 the other viscera, was a dish in so great reputation among the 

 epicures of Rome that Pliny thought it deserved a serious discussion as 

 to whom the honour of inventing so excellent a dish was due. They 

 fed their geese on figs to improve their relish, and were not ignorant 

 that they fattened sooner in a dark room. The celebrated pates 

 de foie gras of Strasburg are made of goose livers, which are brought 

 to a state of abnormal enlargement by keeping the birds in an 

 apartment with a high temperature. 



Everybody knows that Lincolnshire is famous for its breeding 

 of geese, that goose-down and feathers are in great esteem for 

 cushions, beds, etc., and the flesh highly prized. 



Geese are great feeders on grass and fond of water, from 

 which they derive some subsistence in the form of water-herbage 

 and various larval and adult insecta, Crustacea, mollusca, etc. 

 The chief food, however, beyond that supplied as grain and other 

 vegetable substances, is herbage, and unless there be a good run 



