274 COOKERY OF DUCKS AND GEESE 



that the Romans anticipated the Alsatians in the idea 

 of promoting liver disease and making pates de foie 

 gras. There is no greater contrast than in the diet 

 and habits of the domesticated goose and his wild 

 congeners, though the make is much the same and 

 the cooking almost identical. The chief difference is 

 that the former is often thrice the weight of the latter, 

 which seldom exceeds nine pounds. The tame bird 

 waddles from the stackyard to the orchard, and 

 strays on to the common, stuffing on anything, from 

 grain and fallen apples, acorns or chestnuts, to rank 

 grass and garbage. Still he is always more or less 

 savoury eating, and goes naturally with sage stuffing 

 and apple sauce. The wild goose is of even more 

 hazardous quality than the wild ducks. Some 

 species at all times are absolutely unedible, others 

 may be excellent, or very much the reverse. With 

 the best of the breeds it is always a question of food, 

 of distance from the sea, and good living. Colonel 

 Dodge, in his ' Hunting Grounds of the Great West,' 

 says that the strong convoys and flying expeditions 

 of the American troops on the Prairies relied very 

 much for the commissariat on geese and ducks. The 

 Brandt geese our Brent were the largest and most 

 savoury. After the young had commenced feathering 

 they were delicious, and the eggs, when fresh, were 



