THE AMERICAN POULTERER'S COMPANION. 



THE DOMESTIC, OR COMMON GOOSE. 



and in the end, we have birds without mates, 

 eggs unfertilized, and now and then a few mon- 

 strous hybrids, which, however much some curi- 

 ous persons may prize them, are as ugly as they 

 are unnatural, and by no means recompense by 

 their rarity for the absence of two or three 

 broods of healthy legitimate goslings. 



THE DOMESTIC, OK COMMON GOOSE. 



The domestication of the goose, like that of 

 the domestic fowl, is hidden in the remotest 

 ages of antiquity. Among the Greeks and Ro- 

 mans it seems to have been the only really do- 

 mesticated water-fowl they possessed ; and ap- 

 pears to have held exactly the same place in 

 their esteem that it still retains with us, after 

 the lapse of two or three thousand years. 



It is very natural to inquire whence so re- 

 markable and valuable a bird was originally ob- 

 tained ; but the conclusion generally arrived at 

 appears to be inconsistent not merely with 

 truth, but even with probability ; viz., that it re- 

 sults from the crossing and intermixture of sev- 

 eral wild species. None of these ancient ac- 

 counts indicate any such fact ; but on the con- 

 trary, declare that the domestic goose was in the 

 earliest ages exactly what it is now. The very 

 same arguments that are used to show that the 



domesticated goose is a triple alliance of the 

 Gray-legged, the White-fronted, and the Bean 

 goose, would equally prove that the Anglo- 

 Saxon race of men is derived from a mixture 

 of the red Indian, the yellow Chinese, and the 

 tawny Moor. 



According to popular opinion, the domestic 

 goose is usually considered as having been de- 

 rived from the " Grey-legged Goose," but such 

 a circumstance is rendered highly improbable 

 from the well-known fact that the common gan- 

 der, after attaining a certain age, is invariably 

 white. 



The Grey-legged goose certainly approaches 

 nearer to the domestic bird than any of the oth- 

 ers above named ; and if we are limited to any 

 one of the wild birds of this genus, now known 

 to us, in our inquiries for the probable ancestor, 

 it is to this species that, in our opinion, the 

 honor should be assigned. Mr. Yarrell, in his 

 most valuable work on British birds, mentions 

 the following instance in strong corroboration 

 of this relationship : 



"The Zoological Society of London, possess- 

 ing a pinioned wild Grey-legged gander, which 

 had never associated with either Bean goose, 

 or White-fronted goose, though both were kept 

 on the same water with him, a domestic goose, 



