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THE AMERICAN POULTERER'S COMPANION. 



THE AFRICAN GOOSE. 



bird in our books of natural history. Its place 

 of birth has excluded it from all monographs 

 or limited ornithologies. In very few system- 

 atic works is it mentioned at all, which is re- 

 markable of a bird so striking in its appearance, 

 which, there is every reason to believe, must 

 have been domesticated for a long period. The 

 uncertainty that has existed as to its correct 

 name, and really native country, may be one 

 cause of this. Like the Jews or the gipsies, it 

 has not been allowed to claim a place among 

 the natives of any one region ; and, like many 

 others furnished with a number of aliases, it ends 

 by being altogether excluded from society. 



The old writers call it the Guinea goose, for 

 the excellent reason, as Willoughby hints, that 

 in his time it was the fashion to apply the epi- 

 thet "Guinea" to every thing of foreign and 

 uncertain origin. Thus, what we at this day 

 erroneously call the Muscovy duck, was then 

 called the Guinea duck. 



THE AFRICAN GOOSE. 



This is the largest of the goose tribe which 

 has fallen under our observation ; it is of the 

 size of the swan, and it often weighs more than 

 twenty-five pounds. We once possessed a pair; 

 the gander, in ordinary condition, weighed over 



