230 GREY LAG GOOSE. Class II. 



coverts of the tail and vent-feathers ; the drake 

 its curled feathers. The goose in other colors 

 sports less in the tame kind than the other. 

 Tame Tame geese are of vast longevity. Mr. JVil- 



litghby gives an example of one that attained 

 eighty years. They are kept in vast multitudes 

 in the fens of Lincolnshire ; a single person has 

 frequently a thousand old geese, each of which 

 will rear seven, so that towards the end of the 

 season he will become master of eight thousand. 



I beg leave to repeat here a part of the his- 

 tory of their economy from my tour in Scotland^ 

 in order to complete my account. 



Durins; the breeding season these birds are 

 lodged in the same houses with the inhabitants, 

 and even in their very bed-chambers ; in every 

 apartment are three rows of coarse wicker pens, 

 placed one above another ; each bird has its se- 

 parate lodge divided from the other, which it 

 keeps possession of during the time of sitting. 

 A person, called a Gozzard, i. e. Goose-herd, 

 attends the flock, and twice a day drives the 

 whole to water ; then brings them back to their 

 habitations, helping those that live in the upper 

 stories to their nests, without ever misplacing a 

 single bird. 



The geese are plucked five times in the year; 

 the first plucking is at Ladij-Day, for feathers 



