THE GOOSE. 206 



only reception they meet with is death and destruc- 

 tion. 



These birds are easily tamed and domesticated, 

 and in various parts of this country are raised, like 

 other geese (or their feathers and flesh, hi England, 

 France, and Germany, they have long been kept for 

 these purposes. On the approach of spring, however, 

 they are said, always to shew symptoms of uneasiness, 

 and at the usual time of their annual migrations, they 

 try to effect their escape. Some of them whose wings 

 have been cut, so that they could not fly, in their anx- 

 iety to follow their companions, which they hear in 

 the air, have been known to travel several miles to 

 the north on foot. These tame geese always hail 

 every flock of their own kind that passes over them, 

 and the salute is generally returned by the voyagers, 

 \vho are only prevented from lighting, by seeing the 

 habitations of men. 



Sometimes, when wild Geese have been taken arid 

 tamed, on account of their wounds, they have, on re- 

 covering, joined their companions in the air, and pro* 

 ceeded with them on their voyage to the north. An 

 interesting case of this kind is related in Wilson's 

 Ornithology. 



4 Mr. Platt, a respectable farmer on Long Island, 

 wounded a Wild Goose in such a manner, that he 

 caught and carried it home with him. It proved to 

 be a female, and turning it into his yard, with a flock 

 of tame geese, it soon became quite familiar, and in a 

 little time the wounded wing got entirely well. In 

 the following spring, when the Wild Geese were mi- 

 grating to the north, a flock happening to pass over 



