THE GOOSE. 



Ill 



The Goose. 



The GOOSE is a considerable object of rural 

 economy, and kept in large flocks in the Eastern 

 and Fen counties of England. In some of those 

 parts, their geese are exposed to the cruel operation 

 of being annually stripped of their feathers, and it 

 has been said that fowls plucked alive have been 

 sold in the market at Edinburgh. Indeed, the in- 

 terested feelings of man know no scruple, and the 

 cruelties practised upon the poor sea-fowl, which 

 have their down and feathers torn from them, and 

 are then cast into the sea to perish, are enormous, 

 and yet, it should seem, irremediable. Not so the 

 disgusting barbarity, under the insane idea of sporty 

 formerly, perhaps even now, practised in Scotland. 

 These harmless fowls are hung up alive, by the legs, 

 and savages, men and boys, ride at them full speed, 



