400 THE CANADA GOOSE. 



a hollow in the ground, about the size of an ordinary coal-basket, 

 and filled it with hay. The geese soon took possession of it ; and 

 on the third day after they had occupied it, the female laid an egg 

 in it. She ultimately sat on five, and they all proved addle. Last 

 year this incongruous, though persevering, couple visited the island 

 again, and proceeded with the work of incubation in the same place, 

 and upon hay which had been purposely renewed. Nothing could 

 exceed the assiduity with which the little Bernacle stood guard, often 

 on one leg, over his bulky partner, day after day, as she was per- 

 forming her tedious task. If anybody approached the place, his 

 cackling was incessant : he would run at him with the fury of a turkey- 

 cock ; he would jump up at his knees, and not desist in his aggres- 

 sions until the intruder had retired. There was something so re- 

 markably disproportionate betwixt this goose and gander, that I gave 

 to this the name of Mopsus, and to that the name of Nisa ; and I 

 would sometimes ask the splendid Canadian Nisa, as she sat on her 

 eggs, how she could possibly have lost her heart to so diminutive a 

 little fellow as Bernacle Mopsus, when she had so many of her own 

 comely species present, from which to choose a happy and efficient 

 partner. The whole affair appeared to be one of ridicule and bad 

 taste ; and I was quite prepared for a termination of it, similar to 

 that of the two preceding years, when, behold ! to my utter astonish- 

 ment, out came two young ones, the remainder of the five eggs being 

 addle. The vociferous gesticulations and strutting of little Mopsus 

 were beyond endurance, when he first got sight of his long-looked-for 

 progeny. He screamed aloud, whilst Nisa helped him to attack me 

 with their united wings and hissings, as I approached the nest in order 

 to convey the little ones to the water ; for the place at which the 

 old birds were wont to get upon the island lay at some distance, 

 and I preferred to launch them close to the cherry-tree, which done, 

 the parents immediately jumped down into the water below, and then 

 swam off with them to the opposite shore. This loving couple, ap- 

 parently so ill-assorted and disproportionate, has brought up the 

 progeny with great care and success. It has now arrived at its full 

 growth and is in mature plumage. These hybrids are elegantly 

 shaped, but are not so large as the mother, nor so small as the father, 

 their plumage partaking in colour with that of both parents. The 



