AQUATIC FOWLS. 



243 



that geese will pair like pigeons and partridges; 

 and in the course of his experiments he re- 

 marked, that if the number of the ganders ex- 

 ceed that of the geese by two, and even by three, 

 including the common father, no disturbance or 

 disputes occur, the pairing taking place without 

 any noise, and no doubt by mutual choice. Be- 

 sides the common father, he left two of the 

 young ganders unprovided with female compan- 

 ions ; but the couples which had paired kept 

 constantly together, and the three single gan- 

 ders did not, during temporary separations of 

 the males and females, offer to approach the lat- 

 ter. He also remarked, that ganders are more 

 commonly white than the females. M. Par- 

 mentier recommends the gander to be selected 

 of a large size, of a fine white, with a lively eye, 

 and an active gait; while the breeding-goose, 

 he says, ought to be brown, ash-gray, or parti- 

 colored, and to have a broad foot. The gray 

 ^eese are supposed to produce the finest gos- 

 lings, while the parti-colored ones produce bet- 

 ter feathers, and are not apt to stray from 

 home. 



Laying. When well fed the goose will begin 

 to lay early in the spring, usually in March ; 

 sometimes earlier, as the weather is cold or 

 mild. Some geese will lay, twice or three times 

 in the year, from five to twelve eggs each time, 

 and some more that is, when left to their own 

 way; but if the eggs are carefully removed as 

 soon as laid, a goose may be made, by abund- 

 ant feeding, to lay from twenty to fifty eggs 

 without intermitting. 



This refers to the old birds, since young 

 geese in their second year are seldom to be re- 

 lied on. A few eggs are constantly laid; but 

 neither can we trust to their proving productive, 

 nor to the bird itself as likely to properly fulfill 

 the duties of incubation ; our remarks, there- 

 fore, are now limited to the older birds, which, 

 indeed, are not generally considered trustwor- 

 thy as sitters until their third or fourth year, 

 and even long after that age do they continue 

 to improve in their discharge of this important 

 office. From twelve to fifteen is the number 

 usually laid before the goose desires to sit ; but 

 so much depends on weather and food, that 

 variations in this respect are of constant occur- 



rence. The usual time of laying is night, but 

 we have had them deposited at all hours of the 

 day. The eggs are produced on alternate days, 

 and sometimes on two consecutive days, with a 

 cessation on the third. The fecundity of some 

 geese, however, is wonderful ; instances are said 

 to have occurred of a goose laying upward of 

 one hundred eggs within the year. A Mr. 

 Holmes, of Maine, had a goose in his posses- 

 sion which, within the year, laid seventy eggs ; 

 twenty-six at the usual time of incubation, from 

 which she hatched and brought up seventeen 

 fine goslings. She began to lay again at the 

 end of harvest, and continued to lay every oth- 

 er day to the end of the year, and remained in 

 high condition. 



The best locality adapted for the goose- 

 keeper is a wide range ; for where water and 

 grass are plenty we need go no farther. Wa- 

 ter of such size and depth as will permit at 

 least a daily "paddle," is essential for stock 

 birds ; for here they resort as soon as the door 

 of the place of their night's rest is opened, and 

 here and then ensues the intercourse from which 

 an increase to their numbers may be looked for, 

 the presence of water appearing essential to the 

 fertility of the eggs. A rapid running river has 

 few attractions for the goose-keeper, since his 

 birds are too often induced to extend their ex- 

 cursions to perilous distances, and the haz- 

 ards before enumerated are proportionally in- 

 creased. 



The goose-house is too often thought suffi- 

 ciently provided for when some old out-house, 

 hardly secure against the predatory rambles of 

 the fox, and affording easy ingress to rats and 

 other vermin, is appropriated. But as we have 

 seen that the value of breeding turns so great- 

 ly on age, it would surely be worth while to 

 take efficient means to guard against such risks. 

 The rat, it is true, would hardly be considered 

 as a dangerous foe to the grown birds ; but gos- 

 lings have peculiar attractions for it; and by 

 night the chances of a successful inroad are 

 great in spite of the resistance of the old birds 

 in defense of their young. But weasels, skunks, 

 and others of the destructive family, will effect 

 an entrance by apertures which admit the for- 

 mer animal ; and from these, small as some of 



