6.56 



GOOSE. 



or nine miles a day, reckoning from three in the 

 morning till nine at night. Those which become 

 fatigued are fed with oats, and the rest with barley. 

 However simple or awkward the goose may appear, 

 it is by no means destitute of either sagacity or affec- 

 tion ; and some singular instances are recorded of its 

 attachment to animals of another class, and even to 

 persons. The young, or green geese, as the)' are 

 called, destined for the table, should be put into a 

 place that is almost dark, and fed with ground malt, 

 mixed with milk, when they will very soon, and at 

 very little expense, be fit to be killed. Barley-meal 

 may be mixed with water, should milk prove scarce, 

 which they may constantly have by them to eat as 

 they choose ; and, in another part of the shed, some 

 boiled oats and water, kept in a pan, to which they 

 may resort, when inclined to change their food. This 

 variety is agreeable to them, and causes them to thrive 

 very speedily. Michaelmas, or stubble geese, should 

 immediately after harvest be turned out on the wheat 

 fields, where they pick up very fast ; but when 

 taken up to be fattened, they should be fed with 

 ground malt, mixed with water, or boiled barley and 

 water ; and thus treated they grow fatter than would 

 at first be imagined, and acquire a more delicate 

 flavour than those in the London market. The old 

 breeders may be plucked thrice a year, and at an in- 

 terval of seven weeks, without inconvenience ; but 

 young ones, before they are subjected to this opera- 

 tion, muat have attained to the age of thirteen or 

 fourteen weeks, otherwise they will pine and lose 

 their good qualities. It is scarcely necessary to add, 

 that the particular nature of the food, and the care 

 that is taken of the birds, materially contribute to the 

 value of the feathers and the down. In those neigh- 

 bourhoods where there is a good supply of water, 

 they are not so subject as elsewhere to the annoy- 

 ance of vermin ; and they furnish feathers of a supe- 

 rior quality. In regard to down there is a certain 

 stage of maturity, which may be easily discovered, 

 as it is then easily detached, whereas, if removed too' 

 soon, it will not. keep, and is liable to be attacked by 

 insects and their larvae. Again, the feathers ought 

 never to be plucked long after the birds are dead, 

 and, at the latest, before they are quite cold, else they 

 will contract a bad smell, and get matted. Under 

 proper management, and when unmolested by pluck- 

 ing, &c., the tame goose will live to a great age, even, 

 it is alleged, to fourscore years, or perhaps a century. 

 It is, however, seldom permitted to live out its natu- 

 ral life, being sold with the younger ones long before 

 it approaches that period. The old ones are called 

 cagmags, and are bought only by novices in market 

 making ; for from their toughness they are utterly un- 

 fit for the table. . The tame goose lays from eight to 

 twelve eggs, and sometimes more, which the careful 

 housewife divides equally among her brood geese 

 when they begin to sit. Those of her stock which 

 lay a second time in the course of the summer, are 

 seldom if ever permitted to have a second hatching ; 

 but the eggs are used for household purposes. In 

 some countries the domestic geese require much less 

 care and attendance than in this. Thus, among the 

 villages of the Cossacks, on the Don, they leave their 

 noines in March or April, as soon as the ice breaks 

 up, and the pairs joining, take flight in a body to the 

 remote northern lakes, where they breed and con- 

 stantly reside during the summer ; but on the begin- 

 ning of winter, the parent birds, with their multiplied 



young progeny, all return and divide themselves 

 every flock alighting at the door of the respective 

 place to which it belongs. The accuracy with which 

 they thus return to their several homes denotes more 

 intellect than is generally ascribed to them. Another 

 quality which they eminently possess is vigilance ; 

 for nothing can stir in the night but they are roused, 

 and immediately commence cackling ; and on the 

 nearer approach of apprehended danger, they set up 

 their shriller and more clamorous cries. Geese are 

 capable of considerable attachment ; and some of 

 those attachments are of a peculiar nature, being 

 shown not only to birds and to human beings, but to 

 horses, cows, and other mammalia, and sometimes 

 even to those whose habit it is to prey upon geese. 



THK CANADA GOOSE (A. Canademis). This spe- 

 cies, which is also called the cravat goose, from its 

 peculiar marking, is larger than the common goose ot 

 the eastern continen1,though it is not much heavier, 

 and rather a handsomer and better winged bird. Its 

 length exceeds three feet, and the extent of its wins 

 is more than five feet ; the bill is two inches and a half 

 long, of a dark colour, nearly black ; the irides are 

 dark hazel ; the head and neck black, with a crescent- 

 shaped white spot on the upper part of the eyes, which 

 extends on each side of the head as high as the line 

 of the eyes. This is the cravat from which the bird 

 receives one of its names, and it is peculiar to this 

 bird among the whole tribe of the geese. The lower 

 part of the neck, anteriorly, is white ; the back, the 

 wing-coverts, and the upper part, generally greyish- 

 brown, with white tips and margins to the feathers ; 

 the rump, the tail, and the primary quills, are black ; 

 the upper tail-coverts, and also the under ones on the 

 rump, are white ; the sides are pale brownish-ash ; 

 and the naked parts of the feet, and the webs of the 

 toes, are blackish-ash. There is no difference in the 

 colour of the two sexes, and very little in the size. 



This species is the common wild goose of America, 

 and it is as remarkable for its seasonal migrations 

 there as the grey goose is in the eastern continent. 

 In former times the flights of these geese were exceed- 

 ingly numerous, and extended over the whole of the 

 United States. But the Americans, perhaps copying 

 the wild men of the woods, whom they have displaced, 

 are much more disposed to shoot indiscriminately 

 every wild animal, whether useful or injurious, and, if 

 the former, whether it be or be not in season, than 

 the people of Europe ; and the Canadian goose has 

 come in for a share of this work of extirpation. 



No accounts have been given of the flight of those 

 birds along the line of the Rocky Mountains, but they 

 are observed on the west side of that ridge, and they 

 are very plentiful to the eastward, their breeding places 

 being in the extensive swamps to the northward of 

 the American lakes, though they extend northward to 

 the very shores of the polar sea. The swamps in 

 this part of America afford, during the summer 

 months, an asylum for marsh and aquatic birds of all 

 descriptions, which it js difficult for man successfully 

 to invade, and from which it is impossible entirely to 

 extirpate their winged and summer-visiting inhabit- 

 ants. In the summer months there are very extensive 

 districts of this part of America peculiarly adapted as 

 resting-places for aquatic birds, which are, at the 

 same time, quite impracticable for human beings, the 

 time when a passage can be made over them being 

 when they are frozen ; and the fur animals are 

 the chief prize of the hunter at that season. 



