1 74 DUCK. 



The flesh of the tame goose is reckoned very delicate 

 eating ; and the bird is no less valued in some places, par- 

 ticularly in the Lincolnshire fens, for its feathers. In that 

 county a single proprietor will sometimes possess a thou- 

 sand old geese, which, in one season, will increase seven- 

 fold, and are generally plucked five times in a year. This 

 is certainly a very cruel operation ; but, as quills form a 

 valuable article of commerce, the inhumanity of the action 

 is in this, as in many other cases, overlooked in the neces- 

 sity that produces, and the profit that attends it. 



The tame female is very assiduous in hatching her eggs, 

 but has her place sometimes supplied by the gander. 

 When the young are excluded, the pride of the gander is 

 raised to an inconceivable height. Considering himself as 

 a champion to defend his progeny, he resolutely pursues 

 dogs, and even men, when they approach too near. He 

 hisses and stretches out his neck, as if he were furnished 

 with weapons of annoyance ; and, when the object of his 

 animosity has retired, he returns to the female in triumph, 

 screaming and clapping his wings, as if elate with victory. 



To describe all the wild species would swell this article 

 to an immoderate length. The principal are the grey-leg, 

 the bernacle-goose, the white-fronted goose, the Canada- 

 goose, the blue-winged goose, the Muscovy-goose, the 

 spur-winged goose, the antarctic or white-winged goose, 

 the mountain-goose of Spitzbergen, and the mountain- 

 goose at the Cape of Good Hope. The domestic geese 

 are generally allowed to be produced from the grey-leg,, 

 the largest species found in Britain. 



THE DUCK. 



There are numerous species of this genus; as the tame 

 duck, the wild, the eider, the velvet, the scoter, the tufted, 

 the scaup, the golden-eye, the burrough, the pin-tail, the 

 long-tailed, the pochard, the ferruginous, the gadwall or 

 grey, the gargenny, the broad-beaked, the morillon, the 

 grey-headed, the little brown-and-white, the whistling-, 

 the white-bellied, the Barbary or Guinea duck, the great 



