266 DOM]:6TIC AisIMALS. 



in too hot a state, wliile you equally avoid givinp^ it cold. Avoid rain 

 or cold breezes ; and see, therefore, that the walk into which you turn 

 the young- goshngs be sheltered from both wind and weather. The 

 goslings should also be kept from water for at least a couple of days 

 after hatching. If suffered too early to have free access to water, they 

 are very liable to take cramp — a disease which generally produces per- 

 manent lameness and deformity, and but too frequently proves fatal. 



Geese should have an inclosed court or yard, with houses -in which 

 thev mav be shut when occasion requires. It is better, however, to 

 confine them as little as possible; and, by suffering them to stroll about^ 

 and forage for themselves, the expense of rearing them will fall com- 

 paratively lightly on you, so that you will not be conscious of any out- 

 lay. Geese require water, and cannot be advantageously kept when 

 they cannot have access to it; still, however, we have known them to 

 thrive where they had no access to any pond or river, but had only a 

 small artificial pool, constructed by their owners, in which to bathe 

 themselves. When geese are at all within reach of water, they will, 

 when suffered to roam at liberty, usually go in search of, and discover it, 

 and will, afterward, daily resort thither. Though the birds are thus 

 fond of water, all damp about their sleeping places must be scrupulously 

 guarded against. Grass is as necessary to the well-being of geese as 

 water; and the rankest, coarsest grasses, such as are rejected by cattle, 

 constitute the goose's delicacy. 



THE WILD GOOSE.— Canada Goose, or Cravat Goose (Anspr Cana- 

 densis), JVeescash and Mistchaynceseah of the Cree Indian, Wild Goose 

 of the Anglo-Americans, llearne, Wilson, Audubon, Bonaparte, and 

 others have given us full accounts of the habits and manners of the 

 Canada goose in a state of nature. It is the common wild goose of the 

 United States, and its re2:ular periodical migrations are the sure signals 

 of returning spring, or of approaching w^inter. The tracts of their vast 

 migratory journeys are not confined to the sea-coast or its vicinity, for, 

 in their aerial voyages to and from the north, these birds pass over the 

 interior on both sides of the mountains, as far west, at least, as the Osage 

 River. "I have never," says Wilson, "yet visited any quarter of the 

 country where the inhabitants are not familiarly acquainted with the 

 regular passing and repassing of the wild geese." It is an opinion 

 in the states that they visit the lakes to breed. Most, however, it 

 would appear, wing their way much farther northward, for from the 

 Canadian lakes they migrate to still higher latitudes on the setting in 

 of spring. llearne saw them in large flocks within the arctic circle, 

 pushing their way still northward. Captain Phipps observed them on 

 the coast of Spitzbergen, in latitude 80° 27' N. Audubon found them 

 breeding on the coast of Labrador, and states that the eggs, six or seven 

 in number, of a greenish white, are deposited in a roughly made nest. 

 Bonaparte states that they breed everywhere throughout the Hudson's 

 Bay territory, and have been observed in the middle of July on the 

 Copper-mine river, not far from its debouchure, accompanied by their 

 newly-hatched young. The cry of the species is imitated by a nasal 

 repetition of the syllable wook, or, as Wilson writes it, houk. 



The destruction of the Canada geese during their migrations is enor- 



