64 FRANK forester's FIELD SPORTS. 



and is remarked for being extremely watchful, and more sensi- 

 ble of approaching changes in the atmosphere, than the common 

 Gray Goose. In England, France, and Germany, they have 

 also been long ago domesticated. BufFon, in his account of this 

 bird, observes : ' at Versailles, where they breed familiarly with 

 the Swans, they were oftener on the grassy margins, than in the 

 water,' and adds, ' There is at present a great number of them 

 on the magnificent pools that decorate the charming gardens of 

 Chantilly.' Thus has America already added to the stock of 

 domestic fowls, two species, the Turkey and the Canada Goose, 

 The strong disposition of the wounded Wild Goose to migrate 

 to the North in spring, has been already taken notice of. In- 

 stances have occurred, where, the wounds having healed, they 

 have actually succeeded in mounting into the high regions of 

 the air, and joined a passing party to the North ; and extraordi- 

 nary as it may appear, I am well assured by the testimony of 

 several respectable persons, who have been eye-witnesses to 

 the fact, that they have also been known to return again in the 

 succeeding autumn to their former habitation. These accounts 

 are strongly coiToborated by a letter which I sometime ago re- 

 ceived from an obliging correspondent at New-York, which I 

 shall here give at large, permitting him to tell his story in his 

 own way, and conclude my history of this species. 



" ' Mr. Piatt, a respectable farmer on Long Island, being out 

 shooting in one of the bays, which in that part of the country 

 abound with water-fowl, wounded a Wild Goose. Being wing- 

 tipped, and unable to fly, he caught it, and brought it home alive. 

 It proved to be a female, and turning it into his yard, with a 

 flock of tame Geese, it soon became quite tame and familiar, 

 and in a little time its wounded wing entirely healed. In the 

 following spring, when the Wild Geese migrate to the north- 

 ward, a flock passed over Mr. Piatt's barn-yard, and just at that 

 moment their leader happening to sound his bugle note, our 

 Goose, in whom its new habits and enjoyments had not quite 

 extinguished the love of liberty, and remembering the well- 

 known sound, spread its wings, mounted into the air, joined the 



