140 AQUATIC FO\VL. 



to the droppings of the goose on the farm, which, though acrid, 

 when fresh, when mellower will much enrich the soil. 



Buckwheat, or ground oats, mashed up with potatoes, and given 

 warm, to geese, after being cooped in a dark, quiet, cool place, 

 will render them fat in three weeks : cleanliness is essential. 



I am sorry to record the barbarity of plucking the geese, which 

 is practised in Cumberland, Lincolnshire, and some parts of Ire- 

 land. In few countries do the value of geese appear to be fully 

 appreciated, for, with proper management, few animals are of 

 greater worth. If we consider that these birds, not only afford 

 us a wholesome but a delicate food, their smaller feathers and 

 down, contribute so largely to our nightly repose, their quills, so 

 common in use, for transmitting our thoughts to the present and 

 future ages we may truly estimate their intrinsic value as little 

 inferior to the sheep; for the feathers of the goose is equally valu- 

 able with the wool, and the flesh is eagerly sought after. Upon 

 the whole, a goose is a highly profitable animal, little inferior to 

 that of a sheep in certain situations, and thousands are annually 

 bred where that animal could not exist. If the produce of the 

 feathers plucked three times a year, and the quills twice, and 

 that, upon an average, each goose produces six or seven young 

 for the market, annually are considered, how much short they 

 are of the profit yielded by a ewe, in the same time, I shall leave 

 to the calculation of the agriculturist. In most parts of the king- 

 dom, the goose is an appendage to the farm-yard ; and being a 

 hardy bird, and subject to few diseases, requires no care, and is 

 neither fed with hay nor corn, consequently her value is clear 

 profit. 



THE CANADIAN GOOSE, 



Having so commonly bred in Great Britain, in captivity, and 

 being frequently shot, whether as an occasional visitor, or as an 

 escaped bird from an enclosure, has not been ascertained ; how- 

 ever, it is likely to become a native, and, therefore, a description 

 is necessary to my arrangement. Ornithologists place this bird 

 as a link between the swan and the goose, from the neck being 

 more elongated than in the goose, and not so much so as in the 

 swan. The length of this species is three feet, extent five feet two 

 inches; the bill is black; irides, dark hazel; upper half of the 

 neck, black, marked on the chin and lower part of the head 

 with a large patch of white, its distinguishing character ; 

 lower part of the neck, before, white ; back and wing coverts 



