062 AVES — WILD GOOSE. 



home. They hail every flock that passes overhead, and the salute is sure to 

 be returned by the voyagers, who are only prevented from alighting among 

 them, by the presence and habitations of man. The gunners sometimes 

 take one or two of these domesticated geese with them to those places over 

 which the wild ones are accustomed to fly ; and concealing themselves, wait 

 for a flight, which is no sooner perceived by the decoy geese, than they be- 

 gin calling aloud, until the flock approaches so near, that the gunners are 

 enabled to make great havoc among them with their musket shot. 



The English at Hudson's Bay depend greatly on geese, and in favorable 

 seasons kill three or four thousand, and barrel them up for use. They send 

 out their servants, as well as Indians, to kill them on their passage. They 

 mimic the cackle of geese so well, that many of them are allured to the spot 

 where they are concealed, and are thus easily shot. When in good order, 

 the wild goose weighs from ten to fourteen pounds, and is estimated to yield 

 half a pound of feathers. It is domesticated in numerous quarters of the 

 country, and is remarked for being extremely watchful, and more sensible 

 of approaching changes in the atmosphere than the common gray goose. In 

 England, France and Germany, they have been long ago domesticated. 



Mr Piatt, a respectable farmer on Long Island, being out shooting in one 

 of the bays which in that part of the country abound in water-fowl, wounded 

 a wild goose. Being unable to fly, he caught it and brought it home alive. 

 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 its wounded wing 

 entirely healed. In the following spring, when the wild geese migrate to 

 the northward, a flock passed over Mr Piatt's barn-yard, and just at that 

 moment, their leader happening to sound the bugle note, our goose, in whom 

 its new habits and enjoyments had not quite extinguished the love of liberty, 

 and remembering the well-known sound, spread its wings, mounted into the 

 air, joined the travellers, and soon disappeared. In the succeeding autumn, 

 the wild geese, as usual, returned from the northward in great numbers, to 

 pass the winter in our bays and rivers. Mr Piatt happened to be standing 

 in his yard, when a flock passed directly over his barn. At that instant, he 

 observed three geese detach themselves from the rest, and after wheeling 

 round several times, alight in the middle of the yard. Imagine his surprise 

 and pleasure, when, by certain well remembered signs, he recognised in one 

 of the three his long-lost fugitive. It was she indeed! She had travelled 

 many hundred miles to the lakes; had there hatched and reared her off"- 

 spring ; and had now returned with her little family, to share with them the 

 sweets of civilized life. 



