238 



THE AMERICAN POULTERER'S COMPANION. 



themselves apparently rather aristocratic in 

 their notions. The hybrids partook largely of 

 the wild character and habits, and if their wings 

 are not clipped spring and fall, they are very apt 

 to fly away and not return. We have lost two 

 pair in that way ; one pair, after rising in the 

 air and whirling about the premises for a short 

 time, bent their course in a " bee-line" toward 

 the river, and alighted about three miles below 

 Albany, where they were supposed to be wild 

 seese, and shot. The other two left in the latter 



fj ' 



part of winter, and after hovering about the 

 neighborhood for two or three days, were seen 

 to rise high in the air and direct their course to- 

 ward the river, which was the last we ever heard 

 of them. The old gander was finally shot in a 

 small sheet of water near the house by one of 

 those lawless loafers who encroach on our prem- 

 ises with impunity. 



The young gander has a frequent disposition 

 to neglect his own mate, and give himself up to 

 unlicensed companionship. Mr. Dixon had one 

 that deserted his partner, to her evident grief, 

 and made most furious love to one of a flock of 

 tame geese, separating her from the rest, not 

 permitting any other water-fowl to swim near 

 her, stretching out his neck stiffly on a level 

 with the water, opening his red-lined throat to 

 its utmost extent, hissing, sighing, trumpeting, 

 winking his bright, black eyes, tossing his head 

 madly, and all kinds of folly. Mr. Dixon did 

 not choose to permit such conduct ; but as often 

 as he killed and roasted the object of his affec- 

 tions, the Canadian gander immediately select- 

 ed another leman, invariably the ugliest of the 

 surviving females. One short, squat, rough- 

 feathered, ill-marked goose, with a thick bill 

 and a gray top-knot, was his special favorite. 

 When the Michaelmas murders had extirpated 

 the whole race he so much admired, he returned 

 reluctantly and coldly to his former love. The 

 best remedy in such a case is to divorce them 

 at once, and exchange one out of the pair for 

 another bird. 



A similar incident is related in the American 

 Agriculturist, by Colonel Thayer, of Braintree, 

 Massachusetts, in the following words : " A few 

 years since, a neighbor of mine shot at a flock 

 of wild geese while passing to the south, wound- 



ed one in the wing, took it alive, and very soon 

 domesticated him. He soon became very tame, 

 and went with the other geese. I bought him. 

 and kept him three years, and then mated him 

 with an old native goose. They had several 

 broods of young ones, and the old goose be- 

 came very feeble, so much so that she could 

 not sit long enough to hatch out her eggs. I 

 accordingly put them under another goose, 

 where they did very well. In the fall of the 

 year I gave her away, and mated the wild gan- 

 der with another. In the spring following, 

 about six months after, I heard that the old 

 goose had got better, and was in good health. 

 She was brought home and put into my poultry- 

 yard. The wild gander and his new mate were 

 at a distance of about eighty rods, in another 

 pasture. As soon as the old goose was put into 

 the yard she made a loud noise, which the wild 

 gander heard. He immediately left his new 

 mate and came down to the yard, recognized 

 his old mate, entered into close conversation, 

 and appeared extremely happy in seeing her 

 again. His other mate followed him, and 

 wished to join the party ; but he appeared 

 much offended, treated her with the greatest 

 indifference, and drove her from him." 



Wild geese are regarded by those who have 

 kept them nearly as good and as profitable as 

 the domestic goose, which they exceed in size, 

 and especially in the quantity and quality of 

 their feathers; even the half-bloods show a 

 great superiority in that respect. 



The facility with which the wild goose is 

 tamed, while yet it retains a "trick of the old 

 nature," is well exemplified in a story related 

 by Wilson, on the authority of a correspondent 

 for whose veracity he vouches, which story, he 

 observes, is paralleled by others of the same im- 

 port : " Mr. Platt, a respectable farmer on Long 

 Island, being out shooting in one of the bays, 

 which in that part of the country abound with 

 water-fowl, wounded a wild goose. Being wing- 

 tipped and unable to fly, he caught it and brought 

 it home alive. It proved to be a female, and, 

 turning it into his yard with a flock of tame 

 geese, it soon became quite tame and familiar, 

 and in a little time its wounded wing entirely 

 healed. In the following spring, when the wild 



