404 HISTORY OF 



' CHAPTER IX. 



OF BIRDS OF THE GOOSE KIND, PROPERLY SO CALLED. 



THE Swan, the Goose, and the Duck, are leaders 

 of a numerous, useful, and beautiful tribe of birds, 

 that we have reclaimed from a state of nature, 

 and have taught to live in dependence about us. 

 To describe any of these, would be as superfluous 

 as definitions usually are when given of things 

 with which we are already well acquainted. There 

 are few that have not had opportunities of seeing 

 them, and whose ideas would not anticipate our 

 description. But, though nothing be so easy as 

 to distinguish these in general from each other, 

 yet the largest of the duck kind approach the 

 goose so nearly, that it may be proper to mark 

 the distinctions. 



The marks of the goose are, a bigger body, 

 large wings, a longer neck, a white ring about 

 the rump, a bill thicker at the base, slenderer to- 

 wards the tip, with shorter legs placed forward 

 on the body. They both have a waddling walk ; 

 but the duck, from the position of its legs, has it 

 in a greater degree. By these marks, these simi- 

 lar tribes may be known asunder j and though 

 the duck should be found to equal the goose in 

 size, which sometimes happens, yet there are still 

 other sufficient distinctions. 



But they all agree in many particulars, and 

 have a nearer affinity to each other than the neigh- 



