BRITISH BIRDS. 243 



from their toughness, they are very unfit for the 

 table. 



The Tame Goose lays from seven to twelve eggs, 

 and sometimes more: these the careful housewife 

 divides equally among her brood Geese when they 

 begin to sit. Those which lay a second time in 

 the course of the summer, are seldom, if ever, per- 

 mitted to have a second hatching; but the eggs 

 are used for household purposes. In some countries 

 the domestic Geese require much less care and 

 attendance than those of this country. Buffon, in 

 his elegant and voluminous Ornithology, in which 

 nothing is omitted, gives a particular detail of their 

 history and economy every w r here: he informs us, 

 that among the villages of the Cossacks, subject to 

 Russia, on the river Don, the Geese leave their 

 homes in March or April, as soon as the ice breaks 

 up, and the pairs joining each other, take flight in 

 a body to the remote northern lakes, where they 

 breed and constantly reside during the summer; 

 and that on the beginning of winter, the parent 

 birds, with their multiplied young progeny, all 

 return, and divide themselves, every flock alighting 

 at the door of the respective place to which it 

 belongs. 



The Goose has for many ages been celebrated on 

 account of its vigilance. The story of their saving 

 Rome by the alarm they gave, when the Gauls 

 were attempting the capitol,* is well known, and 

 was probably the first time of their watchfulness 

 being recorded; and on that account, they were 



* As the poet sings 

 " Et servaturis vigili Capitolia voce Anseribus." 



