212 EEMIXISCEXCES OF A SPOETSMAX, 



familiarise. The mallard comes within the same de- 

 scription, and is the source from whence the tame breed 

 .of ducks is derived. As the management of tame 

 geese yields considerable profit, it will warrant giving 

 some account of them. They are kept in great numbers 

 in the fens of Lincolnshire ; one individual will be the 

 owner of one thousand old geese, each of which it is 

 calculated wall rear seven, so that at the end of the year 

 he will be master of 8000. Geese, in genei'al, breed 

 only once in the year, but sometimes they have two 

 hatches, if well kept. The time of sitting is about 

 thirty days. They will also produce eggs sufficient for 

 three broods, if the eggs are taken away in succession. 

 During the breeding season these birds are lodged in 

 the same houses with their owners, and even in their 

 bed-chambers. Three wicker pens are placed one above 

 another in every apartment ; each bird has its separate 

 lodge, divided from the other, which it keeps possession 

 of during the time of sitting. A person called a 

 gozzard attends the flock, and twice a-day drives the 

 whole to water, then brings them back to their habita- 

 tions, helping those that live in the upper storeys to 

 their nests, without ever misplacing a single bird. These 

 geese are plucked five times in the year; the same 

 operation takes place in Germany, but I am uncertain 

 what number of times. The first plucking is at Lady Day 

 for feathers and quills, and the same is renewed, for fea- 

 thers only, four times more between that and Michaelmas. 

 They say the old geese submit quietly to the operation, 

 but the young ones are very noisy and unruly. Even 

 goslings of six weeks old are not spared, their tails being 

 plucked to habituate them, as it is said, to the operation. 

 About ten pluckers are employed, each with a coarse 



