TttE GOOSE. 119 



legs are black or reddish. This bird is found throughout 

 the temperate climates of the earth ; in summer frequenting 

 the higher latitudes, and in winter resorting to milder 

 regions. Some of the Indians form garments of their 

 skins, leaving the down still attached to them. Of the 

 larger feathers they make diadems for their chiefs, and 

 weave the smaller on threads to ornament the garments 

 of their ladies of quality. In August the swans lose their 

 feathers, and being disabled from flying, are then easily 

 caught : in Iceland and Kamschatka, they are hunted with 

 dogs. The eggs are esteemed for food ; and the flesh is a 

 favourite with the natives ; so highly do they prize that 

 of the young birds, that an entertainment is considered in- 

 complete without it. This species has a sharp loud cry, 

 which is heard at a great distance, even when the bird 

 flies so high as to be out of sight. This peculiarity is 

 referred to the structure of the windpipe, which assumes 

 a serpentine direction in its way to the lungs. 



THE GOOSE. 



The bill is the principal characteristic which distin- 

 guishes the goose kind from all the feathered tribe. In 

 other birds it is round and wedge-like, or crooked at the 

 extremity ; in the goose family it is flat and broad, formed 

 for the purpose of skimming from ponds and lakes the 

 mantling weeds which grow upon their surfaces. 



The flesh of the tame goose is reckoned very delicate 

 eating, and it is no less valued in some places, particularly 

 in the Lincolnshire fens, for its feathers. In that county, an 

 individual proprietor will sometimes possess a thousand old 

 geese ; which, in one season will increase seven fold, and 

 are generally plucked five times in a year. This is cer- 

 tainly a very cruel operation ; but, as quills form a valu- 

 able article of commerce, in this as in many other cases, 

 the inhumanity of the action is overlooked, in the necessity 

 that produces and the profit that attends it. 



