GOOSE. 



653 



which is left, open to such a bird as a goose in the 

 high latitudes. In the extreme north the sea also is 

 covered with ice, and with snow over that ice ; and, 

 even where this is not the case, geese arc incapable 

 of finding their food in the sea, even though clear of 

 snow and ice to the high-water mark, which it seldom 

 is, while the snow lies thick in the northern parts 

 even of this country. Thus, in Scotland, though vast 

 flights of geese pass over the country in winter, the}' 

 never alight, in the northern bays and estuaries, or on 

 those deep lakes which have snow down to the 

 water's edge. They come gradually southward, dis- 

 persing themselves over such of the inland pools and 

 marshes as are not frozen, and as far to the south- 

 ward, as long-continued frost and snow follow them, 

 they move on ; so that, in the course of a very severe 

 winter, wild geese, of some description or other, 

 range over almost the entire surface of the British 

 islands. Their flight is high ; and, though they do 

 not alight except at such places as afford a prospect 

 of food, yet there is no doubt that, from their situa- 

 tion at the top of the sky, they scan the whole 

 horizon in their passage. It is doubtful whether any 

 of them cross such mountains as the most lofty and 

 broad-based of the Grampians, though they do make 

 their way from the northern glens to the southern 

 ones. Indeed, those marshy ponds, ivhich are usually 

 found about the parting of the water where two glens 

 meet, are the places of favourite resort, more espe- 

 cially in the earlier part of the migration. The mode 

 of flight is peculiar, but it can be better explained 

 afterwards, when we are noticing those species most 

 common in this country ; but an attentive perusal of 

 what we have said will easily show the reader why 

 the geese necessarily leave their northern pastures 

 during the w inter, and also that, during this migra- 

 tion, they preserve, as nearly as they can, the same 

 kind of feeding-grounds along its whole extent. It 

 will also be seen, that those feeding-grounds are not 

 frequented by any other race of migrant birds which 

 the rigour of winter drives from the north, and hence 

 one important use of geese in the economy of nature 

 may be learned. 



But there is another branch of the subject which is 

 equally deserving of investigation, and that is, why, 

 when they have escaped from the rigour of the 

 northern winter, they return again ? It has sometimes 

 been satirically said, that " A Scotchman is no goose, 

 for, when he migrates from the north, he seldom 

 migrates back again ;" and though this is only a little 

 bit of pleasantry, there is more knowledge of natural 

 history, to which it may be made a sort of artificial 

 memory, than one would at first sight be apt to sup- 

 pose. The Scotchman does not migrate northward, 

 because he finds the southern pasture perennial, and, 

 by parity of reasoning, the goose migrates northward, 

 because to it the southern pasture is merely seasonal, 

 and not perennial ; and while barrenness sets in in 

 the south, plenty begins to return in the north ; and 

 thus the geese are as true to their feeding instinct, or 

 rather, as much impelled by the want of food in their 

 voyage northward as in their voyage southward. 



There again we may see, that how well soever the 

 peculiar circumstances of the northern summer the 

 plentiful supply of food, and the long day, may assist 

 those birds which migrate northward in summer, in 

 the rearing of their brood, by enabling them to pro- 

 cure more provisions than they could possibly do in 

 the south ; yet it shows that the fact of migrating is 



not, as nas sometimes been supposed, a consequence 

 of any instinct, or propensity, arising out of the dis- 

 position to breed. This is a very important point to 

 be established, because the migration of birds appears 

 a very mysterious subject ; and as the tendency of 

 the unreflecting part of mankind is to solve all mys- 

 teries by their own mode of procedure, that is by fore- 

 thought, purpose and plan on the part of the creature, 

 this is a very dangerous ground, inasmuch as it makes 

 those animals rational, by placing them not only on a 

 level with man, but considerably higher ; and thus 

 virtually destroying the foundations both of religion 

 and of moral obligation, a consequence which many 

 of those who have been the warmest advocates of the 

 doctrine, would be the last to countenance by open 

 means, however powerfully their unwise and un- 

 guarded assertions may indirectly promote it. From 

 what has been said in the case of the geese, it is per- 

 fectly evident that their impulse, both southward and 

 northward, is the momentary, and merely animal one 

 of the desire of food, and the impossibility or difficulty 

 in finding it ; and that when a goose makes a spring 

 journey from Lands' End to Labrador, its speculation 

 does not at any one time extend a moment into the 

 future. 



The circumstances of the southern and northern 

 countries, as contrasted with each other, are of them- 

 selves sufficient to show that famine follows, or forces 

 a goose northward to plenty in the summer, as well 

 as southward to plenty in the winter. We take the 

 argument in this article GOOSE, instead of in any 

 other part of this work ; because the goose is a very 

 generally distributed bird ; because its migrations 

 when in a state of nature are very decided ; and be- 

 cause those seasonal changes, in consequence of 

 which it must migrate or perish, are more general, 

 and certainly more imperious than in the case of any 

 other bird. 



As the congealing influence of cold forces these birds 

 from the north, so the drying influence of heat forces 

 them from the south. Early in the summer, when 

 the east winds continue cold and dry for a succession 

 of weeks, the pools disappear, and the vegetation on 

 the upland places is retarded. This state of things 

 continues gradually northwards as the year advances ; 

 and a different state of things gradually mingles with 

 it, and becomes a maximum in respect of it, after a 

 certain limit is passed, till, when we come to the ex- 

 treme north, this new state of things entirely predo- 

 minates over the other. 



We use the word " summer" upon this occasion, as 

 a general name for all that part of the year during 

 which the productive power of the earth is on the in- 

 crease ; and according to this mode of division, all 

 the remaining part of the year is winter. There are 

 many cases in which this is a far more convenient mode 

 of viewing the differences of the year, than the division 

 of it into four seasons. Everywhere, at least without 

 the tropics, there is a summer and a winter ; but spring 

 and autumn differ greatly in the different latitudes of 

 the range. In the extreme south of it, spring and 

 autumn may be considered of longer duration than 

 summer and winter, while in the extreme north, the 

 duration of both of these seasons is not only very 

 much shortened, but in some cases nearly, if not alto- 

 gether, obliterated. There are instances even in the 

 north of Scotland, in which the wild plants come into 

 bloom within a week or two after the melting of the 

 snow, and other instances in which winter comes in 



