THE WILD GOOSE. 399 



rous to send a Goose down a chimney, than a child up it ? 

 This by the way : but all half-bred Canada Geese, that I have 

 seen, look as if they had kindly undertaken to act as substi- 

 tute for the poor little climbing boy or girl. 



Not only are they suffered thus to herd with other varie- 

 ties, but the broods of successive years are allowed to remain, 

 and annoy, and encroach upon the privileges of their parents, 

 (which would be made all square by their natural migrations,) 

 till the park gets evidently overstocked to the most unprac- 

 tised eye it has really been so long before and then a 

 few surplus individuals are disposed of, mostly at an age and 

 season when they are good for little except their feathers, if 

 for them. This mode of mismanagement accounts for the low 

 esteem in which the flesh of the Canada Goose is held in Eng- 

 land. I never met with any one who had tasted it here, that 

 did not pronounce it detestable j though a gentleman who had 

 lived on it for weeks in Canada, still remembered it with 

 relish. In one instance within my own knowledge, the extra 

 stock were given to the poor, who could not or would not eat 

 them. But it is impossible that the thousands of people who 

 eagerly destroy the bird in its passage to and fro, can be mis- 

 taken in the opinion they have for years held of its value as 

 an article of diet. Audubon gives the clue to our error ; he 

 says, " the goslings bred in the inland districts, and procured 

 in September, in my opinion far surpass the renowned Can- 

 vas-back Duck" the most famous tit-bit that America pro- 

 duces. He adds, " every portion of it is useful to Man ; for be- 

 sides the value of the flesh as an article of food, the feathers, 

 the quills, and the fat are held in request. The Eggs also 

 afford very good eating." 



Instead of this slovenly mode of breeding and feeding, 

 which no one would think of adopting with the most ordinary 

 Goose that ever grazed upon a common, I would, not unad- 

 visedly, recommend every flock of Canada Geese to be in No- 



