GEESE AS NIGHT-WATCHMEN 245 



Sarus and Australian Cranes (Antigone collaris and 

 A. australasiana). In most bald birds, however, 

 the ear-hole is exposed, as in the Ostrich and 

 Turkey, and so it is, curiously enough, in an 

 Australian bird with otherwise feathered head, 

 the Mallee-hen (Leipoa ocellata). 



The perfection of birds' hearing may be accur- 

 ately judged of by the performances of the various 

 talking and mimicking birds, such as Parrots and 

 Mynahs, whose imitation of their models is often 

 absolutely perfect ; and the susceptibility to sound of 

 species which have not these vocal gifts is well known. 



It is said that the wild Turkey, when being 

 lured within shot by an imitation of the hen's call, 

 will at once detect a false note, and be shy for the 

 rest of the season ; and the Canadian Goose dis- 

 tinguishes at once, according to Audubon, between 

 man-made sounds and the natural ones of the 

 woods and wilds, the crack of a dry stick under a 

 deer's hoof being discriminated from its breakage 

 by a human foot, and the accidental slap of 

 paddle against a canoe-side from the flop of a 

 Turtle taking to the water. 



Every one also is familiar with the Roman Geese 

 whose vigilance is said to have saved the Capitol ; 

 and whatever the historical value of the human 

 part of that portion of Roman history, no goose- 

 breeder, says Fowler, as quoted in Wright's " Book 

 of Poultry," would at all doubt it, his own experi- 

 ence corroborating it in every essential point. The 

 Roman poet's attribution of greater sagacity to 



