10 TALKS ABOUT BIRDS 



not the ancestor of the tame geese you see 

 there. All over India and China the tame 

 geese are of the sort with a knob on the beak, 

 and with brown plumage instead of grey 

 when it is not white which are always called 

 Chinese geese over here. These come from 

 a different sort of wild goose, which is found 

 in China and was tamed there long ago, and 

 brought into Europe some centuries back. 

 To any one who has lived in the East it seems 

 strange to see these geese kept as park orna- 

 ments, just as it seems funny to see the Indian 

 cattle with humps kept in the Zoo in yards 

 like wild bisons, when in India you see them 

 in every road and field drawing carts and 

 ploughs. 



There is some reason to suppose that pigeons 

 were tamed in very ancient times, for they are 

 often mentioned in the Bible; but pigeons 

 may have lived half tame about towns, like 

 sparrows, for a long time before people ever 

 tried shutting them up ; and the ordinary blue 

 pigeon, with two black bars on the wings, is 

 found building on the sea-cliffs in this country, 

 and on mountains all across Europe and Asia. 

 In India it often builds in ruins and in the 



