BRITISH BIRDS. 241 



But in no part of the world are such numbers 

 reared as in the fens of Lincolnshire, where it is said 

 to be no uncommon thing for a single person to 

 keep a thousand old Geese, each of which, on an 

 average, will bring up seven young ones. So far 

 those only are noticed which may properly be called 

 the larger flocks, by which particular watery dis- 

 tricts are peopled; and although their aggregate 

 numbers are great, yet they form only a part of the 

 large family: those of the farm-yard, taken sepa- 

 rately, appear as small specks, on a great map ; but 

 when they are gathered together, and added to thos-e 

 kept by almost every cottager throughout the king- 

 dom, the immense whole will appear multiplied in 

 a ratio almost incalculable. A great part of those 

 which are left to provide for themselves during the 

 summer, in the solitary distant waters, as well as 

 those which enliven the village green, are put 

 into the stubble fields after harvest, to fatten upon 

 the scattered grain : and some are penned up 

 for this purpose, by which they attain to greater 

 bulk; and it is hardly necessary to observe, that 

 they are then poured in weekly upon the tables of 

 the luxurious citizens of every town in the king- 

 dom. But these distant and divided supplies seem 

 trifling when compared with the multitudes which, 

 in the season, are driven in all directions into the 

 metropolis :* the former appear only like the scanty 

 waterings of the petty streamlet; the latter, like 

 the copious overflowing torrent of a large river. 

 To the country market towns they are carried in 



* In ancient times they were driven in much the same way, from 

 the interior of Gaul to Rome. 



VOL. II. 2 H 



