426 THE CHINA GOOSE. 



and are well relieved by the black tuberculated bill, and tho 

 pure white of the abdomen. Their movements on the water 

 are graceful and swan -like. It is delightful to see them, on a 

 fine day in spring, lashing the water, diving, rolling over 

 through mere fun, and playing all sorts of antics. Slight 

 variations occur in the colour of the feet and legs, some having 

 them of a dull orange, others black : a delicate fringe of minute 

 white feathers is occasionally seen at the base of the bill. 

 These peculiarities are hereditarily transmitted. But the 

 White China Goose, if it be not specifically distinct, is a 

 variety so decidedly marked as to demand a separate notice. 



The male is almost as much disproportionately larger than the 

 female as the Musk Drake is in comparison with his mate. 

 He is much inclined to libertine wanderings, without, how- 

 ever, neglecting to pay proper attention at home. If there is 

 any other Gander on the same premises, they are sure to dis- 

 agree : one of the two had better be got rid of. Both male 

 and female are, perhaps, the most noisy of all Geese : at night, 

 the least footfall or motion in their neighbourhood is sufficient 

 to call forth their clanging and resonant trumpetings. This, 

 to a lone country-house, is an advantage and a protection. 

 Any fowl-stealer would be stunned with their din before he 

 captured them alive, and the family must be deaf indeed that 

 could sleep on through the alarm thus given. But by day it 

 becomes a nuisance to the majority of hearers, and has caused 

 them to be relinquished by many amateurs. One is inclined 

 to address them as O'Connell did the uproarious fellow who 

 was interrupting his speech, " I wish you had a hot potato in 

 your mouth." Or they might take a lesson from jElian's 

 Geese : a The Geese, when shifting about Mount Taurus, are 

 afraid of the Eagles, and each one or them, taking a stone in 

 its mouth, that they may not cry out, as if putting a gag upon 

 themselves, fly through their course in silence, and in this 

 manner generally quite escape the notice of the Eagles." 



