84 BIRDS WEB-FOOTED DIAGRAM 4. 



The Goose is a valuable bird in the poultry yard, but it is also 

 found in this country in flocks in a wild state. It makes great 

 migrations, and flies like the cranes in a triangular arrangement, in 

 order to cleave the air with more ease. Geese do not deserve the 

 reputation in which they are held ; they are intelligent animals, 

 although they do not appear so. In domesticity, geese afford quill- 

 pens and down. The former are the wing feathers, which are pulled 

 out twice a year. They then undergo a preparation which makes 

 them brittle, and capable of being cut with the knife. In this 

 country, when geese are reared for the table, they are allowed to 

 feed at large ; but on the Continent they are shut up, and given as 

 much to eat as they can swallow ; and they are sometimes even put 

 into small cages where they have scarcely room to move. The 

 animal then grows fat, and yields a highly valuable grease. At 

 the same time, the liver has grown to two or three times its former 

 size ; it is taken out after killing the bird, and is used to make 

 pates defoies yras, for which Strasburg is especially famous. 



Ducks, like geese, are very valuable for food, and their feathers 

 are also useful. On the Continent they are fattened like geese, and 

 their foies gras are even more highly esteemed. 



The wild duck passes the summer in the North, and returns to 

 us about the month of October. It arrives in small flocks whicl 

 travel in the evening or by night, but which make an easily 

 recognizable noise in flying. They disperse themselves among 1 

 the marshes, and along the banks of rivers. 



