CLASS II. AVES: OKDEIl 8. NATATORES. 



313 



THE CANADA GOOSt:, OK WILD GOOSE UP AMERICA. 



ing. Pennant says: "Tame 

 geese are kept in vast multi- 

 tudes in the fens of Lincoln- 

 shire; a single person has 

 frequently one thousand old 

 geese, each of which will rear 

 seven, so that toward the end 

 of the season he will become 

 master of eight thousand. 

 During the breeding season 

 these birds are lodged in the 

 same houses with the inhab- 

 itants, and even in their very 

 bed-chainbers ; in every apart- 

 ment are three rows of coarse 

 wicker-pens, placed one above 

 another; each bird has its sep- 

 arate lodge divided from the 

 other which it keeps possession 

 of during the time of sitting. 

 A person called a Gozzard, that is, Goosehcrd, attends the flock, and twice a day drives the whole 

 to water ; then brings them back to their habitations, helping those that live in the upper stories 

 to their nests, without ever misplacing a single bird. The geese are plucked five times in the 

 year; the first plucking is at Lady-Day, for feathers and quills, and the same is renewed four 

 times more between that and Michaelmas for feathers only. The old geese submit quietly to the 

 operation, but the young ones are very noisy and unruly. I once saw this performed, and ob- 

 served that goslins of six weeks old were not spared ; for their tails were plucked, as I was told, 

 to habituate them early to what they are to come to. If the season proves cold, numbers of the 

 geese die by this barbarous custom. When the flocks are numerous, about ten pluckers are em- 

 ployed, each with a coarse apron up to his chin. Vast numbers of geese — sometimes two or 

 three thousand in a flock — are driven annually to London to supply the markets, among them all 

 the superannuated geese and ganders — called the ' Cagmags' — which, by a long course of pluck- 

 ing, prove uncommonly tough and dry. The feathers are a considerable article of commerce ; 

 those fi'om Somersetshire are esteemed the best, and those from Ireland the worst." The liver 

 seems to have been a favorite morsel with epicures in all ages, and invention appears to have 

 been active in exercising the means of increasing the volume of that organ. The ^Jrt^e de 

 foie d''ole de Strasbourg is not more in request now than were the great goose-livers in the time 

 of the Romans. This bird lives to a great age, sometimes seventy years or more. 



The Gray Lag-Goose, yl./e^^^5, is thirty-five inches long; upper parts ash-brown and ash- 

 gray ; under parts white. It is migratory, proceeding to the northern parts of Europe and Asia 

 in summer, and to the south in winter. This is the Common Wild Goose of England. 



Other foreign species are the Bean Goose, A. segetum : the Pink-footed Goose, A. hrachyrhyn- 

 chus : the Red-breasted Goose, A.ruficollis : the Egyptian Goose, A. ^ggj)tiacus : the Spur- 

 winged or Gambo Goose, A. Gamhcnsis. There are several species in Asia not here enumerated. 

 The following are found on both continents : the White-fronted or Laughing Goose, A. ulbi- 

 frons, is twenty-seven inches long ; common in Europe and in the North American Fur Coun- 

 tries, but rare along our coasts: the Bernicle Goose, A. ^cmco^sJs, twenty-five inches long; was 

 formerly supposed to be bred from bernicles, whence its name ; found in Europe ; abundantly in 

 the Baltic, and occasionally, it is said, in Hudson's Bay ; the Brent Goose, A. torquatus, a 

 small species, twenty-one inches long ; common in both Europe and America. On our coast it 

 !s a favorite game bird, known by the name of Brant 



The Snow-Goose, A. Ju/pcrboreus, is twenty-eight inches long, and is known on our coast by 

 the names of White Brant and Blue-winged Goose. 

 Vol. II.— 40 



