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CHAPTER XXXI. 



THE BERNICLE GOOSE. 



SEVERAL ornithological writers have lamented, with ex- 

 pressions of surprise, that so few of the larger water-birds have 

 been domesticated, and made to afford us a ready supply of 

 food, in return for their board and lodging. But it should be 

 remembered that there are two parties to the proposed arrange- 

 ment the master and the slave. If the captive resolutely 

 persists in saying, " You may bestow every care upon me, and 

 lavish every comfort, but I will not be the parent of a race of 

 slaves, although I may show a little personal thankfulness to 

 yourself," the next move for us to make is to procure young 

 that are ignorant of the fascinations of a wild life, and to en- 

 deavour to subdue, by kindness, their stubborn nature. If 

 they remain indomitably independent, and refuse to yield, we 

 are check-mated, and cannot proceed a step further. It is not 

 in our power to increase the number of domesticable birds. 

 "The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every 

 beast of the earth, and upon every Fowl of the air, upon all 

 that moveth upon the earth/' is a promise which will be un- 

 doubtedly fulfilled; and thus, as the dominion of Man over the 

 earth daily and hourly extends itself, those creatures that 

 refuse to enter into his train, will be crushed, and perish 

 beneath his advancing footsteps; for, "into your hand are they 



