STUPIDITY. 115 



According to Gillmore also, the Brent geese of North 

 America hover over or about their shot comrades till they 

 themselves are shot, a fatal hesitancy attributable apparently 

 to kindly feelings of sympathy and brotherly love. The 

 same ' foolish want of regard for their safety ' is shown by 

 the plover and various wading birds ; ' sooner than forsake 

 their dead and wounded comrades ' they sacrifice their own 

 lives to the advantage taken of their emotional condition by 

 relentless, unsympathising man. 



On the other hand, according to Houzeau and other 

 authors, this same wild or Canadian goose is not always 'such 

 a goose ' or fool in human parlance, as it appears to be. It 

 has the sense, at least, to know when it is well off, for instance 

 by joining the domestic goose for the sake of the creature 

 comforts the food and protection the latter possesses, and 

 by bringing its wild companions to share for a time, or per- 

 manently, the benefits of man's farm-yard patronage. 



Houzeau also tells us of a Chinese goose that struck up 

 a violent friendship at first sight apparently with a dog ; 

 uttered threats of vengeance against any person or other 

 animal offering to interfere with its favourite; pursued a 

 dog that killed its mate ; and lamented its dog-companion's 

 temporary absences. 



Watson gives instances both of good sense and good 

 feeling in, and of faithful discharge of duty by, the goose. 

 One of his anecdotes refers to a dying goose installing a 

 young one in succession to it as a nurse, implying a com- 

 munication of her own feelings and wishes, her success in 

 inducing the other to become her substitute, instruction 

 in certain duties, a sense of her own approaching death, 

 and of the necessity of appointing a successor. Audubon 

 describes the phenomena of courtship in the Canada goose, 

 its choice and coquetry, the satisfaction or the reverse of the 

 contracting parties, the shortness of the process in propor- 

 tion to the age of the lovers, and the retirement from the 

 field of the bachelors or old maids. The * Percy Anecdotes ' 

 give instances of gratitude in the goose. Pasturant flocks 

 of geese in the New Forest, and each member of the flock, 

 know their homesteads and the proper hour each day for 



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