126 DOMESTIC AOTMALS. 



rarely sleep on the water, generally preferring to roost all night in the 

 marshes. When the shallow bays are frozen, they seek the mouths of 

 inlets near the sea, occasionally visiting the air-holes in the ice ; but 

 these bays are seldom so completely frozen as to prevent them feeding 

 on the bars at the entrance. 



The Canada goose is a beautiful species, and its flesh is excellent. 

 The head, two-thirds of the neck, the greater quills, the rump, and tail 

 are perfectly black ; the back and wings brown, edged with wood-brown ; 

 the base of the neck anteriorly, and the under plumage generally, brown- 

 ish gray ; a few white feathers are scattered about the eye, and a white 

 cravat of a kidney shape forms a conspicuous mark on the throat ; upper 

 and under tail coverts pure white ; bill and feet black. Such is a brief 

 sketch of the Canada goose in a, state of nature. Man, however, has 

 appreciated its value, and it is kept domesticated not only in America, 

 but in many parts of Europe where it breeds freely. In America the 

 ordinary gray goose of Europe is very common ; but this bird does not 

 thrive there so well as in Europe ; hence many prefer the Canada goose, 

 which is as familiar, and its equal in other points. 



This species will breed with the common goose ; and it is asserted 

 that the hybrid progeny is far superior in the flavor and sapidity of its 

 flesh to the unmixed progeny of the common goose. Bufibn, in whose 

 time the Canada goose was kept in a domestic state in France, says : 

 " Within these few years many hundreds have inhabited the great canal 

 at Versailles, where they breed familiarly with the swans." That is, we 

 suppose, interbreed with the swans, an instance of which has not come 

 under our own notice ; the intermediate position, however, of this spe- 

 cies renders the fact probable. 



Like the duck and the common goose, the Canada goose under do- 

 mestication ceases to be as strictly monogamous as it is in its wild state 

 — a circumstance which, in our tame anatidm, may result from the plan 

 of keeping but few males, and these in association with a flock of fe- 

 males, so that the ordinary results of pairing — that is, retiring from the 

 rest to a secluded spot, which the mated pair exclusively occupy — are 

 interfered with. Yet, as may be seen in the instance of the common 

 goose, the male generally attaches himself to a particular female, while 

 she is followed by her brood of goslings over the common, and is ener- 

 getic in their defense. The instinct is not quite obliterated — there is a 

 reigning sultana. 



It is a question worth attention, whether the Canada goose might not 

 with advantage be more extensively kept in our country than it is at 

 present ; it is common as an ornament to sheets of water in parks, gar- 

 dens, and pleasure grounds, but is too much neglected as a bird of utility ; 

 it is alike valuable for flesh and feathers ; it is not so decided a grazer 

 as is the common goose ; the precincts of marshes and ponds which 

 abound in aquatic vegetation, for the procuring of which its strong bill 

 and long swan-like neck aflFord it facility, offer the most advantageous 

 sites for its establishment, and in such localities we strongly recommend 

 its adoption. With regard to its management little is to be said ; the 

 sitting females require secluded nests, free from intrusion ; and the flock, 

 in addition to the vegetables they pick up, require an allowance of grain. 



