304 DOMESTIC GOOSE. Chap. VIII. 



its colour and tliat of the legs are both slightly variable.^^ 

 This latter fact deserves attention, because the colour of the 

 legs and beak is highly serviceable in discriminating the 

 several closely allied wild forms.^' At our Shows two breeds 

 are exhibited ; viz. the Embden and Toulouse ; but they 

 differ in nothing except colour.^" Recently a smaller and 

 singular variety has been imported from Sebastopol,^^ with 

 the scapular feathers (as I hear from Mr. Tegetmeier, who 

 sent me specimens) greatly elongated, curled, and even 

 spirally twisted. The margins of these feathers are rendered 

 plumose by the divergence of the barbs and barbules, so that 

 they resemble in some degree those on the back of the black 

 Australian swan. These feathers are likewise remarkable 

 from the central shaft, which is excessively thin and trans- 

 parent, being split into fine filaments, which, after running for 

 a space free, sometimes coalesce again. It is a curious fact that 

 these filaments are regularly clothed on each side with fine 

 down or barbules, precisely like those on the proper barbs of 

 the feather. This structure of the feathers is transmitted to 

 half-bred birds. In Gallus sonneratii the barbs and barbules 

 blend together, and form thin horny plates of the same nature 

 with the shaft : in this variety of the goose, the shaft divides 

 into filaments which acquire barbules, and thus resemble true 

 barbs. 



Althoiigh the domestic goose certainly difiers somewhat 

 from any known wild species, yet the amount of variation 

 which it has undergone, as compared with that of most 

 domesticated animals, is singularly small. This fact can be 

 partially accounted for by selection not having come largely 

 into play. Birds of all kinds which present many distinct 

 races are valued as pets or ornaments ; no one makes a pet of 

 the goose ; the name, indeed, in more languages than one, is 

 a term of reproach. The goose is valued for its size and 

 flavour, for the whiteness of its feathers which adds to their 



^^ W. Thompson, ' Natural Hist, of and Mag. of Nat. Hist.,' 3rd series, 



Ireland,' 1851, vol. iii. p. 31. The vol iii. 1859 p. 122. 



Rev. E. S. Dixon gave me some infor- ^° ' Poultry Chronicle,' vol. i., 1854, 



mation on the varying colour of the p. 498; vol. iii. p. 210. 



beak and legs. " ' The Cottage Gardener,' Sept, 



*' Mr. A. Strickland, in 'Annals 4th, 1860, p. 348. 



