FLESH FOOD FURNISHED BY THE FEATHERED TRIBES. 173 



monuments in the British Museum, or Eosellini's mag- 

 nificent work on Egyptian antiquities, where we find 

 geese represented alive, plucked, and prepared for the 

 table. 



Geese. — Mention has already been made of the fattening 

 of the geese and of their livers carried on in Alsace and 

 at Strasbourg. This fattening is also a speciality of 

 Languedoc and Toulouse. 



Geese are sometimes preserved for keeping either by 

 smoking or boucanading, as they do hams ; they are also 

 cooked and then preserved by covering them with fat. 



From recent statistics there are in France 4,170,650 

 geese, worth 4 frs. each, equal to 16,682,600 frs. A 

 fifth of these are sold for food for a sum of 3,336,520 frs., 

 as well as 8341,131 ganders fattened and sold at 4 frs., 

 equal to 3,336,524 frs. The 2,502,392 females will raise 

 37,535,895 goslings, from which 3,753,589 will be re- 

 served for breeding ; about 3,713,589 goslings will have 

 to be deducted for losses by death and accidents ; there 

 will remain, therefore, 3,068,718 young geese, which, 

 sold at 2i frs., will produce 75,171,792 frs. If we add 

 for fine and choice birds an increased value of 500,000 

 frs., this brings up the total for geese to 82,344,836 frs. 



The French goose has of late years become a formid- 

 able rival of his fellow-geese from the Emerald Isle. 

 Formerly there was a prejudice against French geese ; 

 the trade would not look at them, and the public would 

 not eat them. But gastronomical prejudices are short- 

 lived. Whether it be due to the soothing influence of 

 sage and onions, or to the quality of the noble bird itself, 

 it is certain that the French goose is now very popular 

 on this side of the Channel, for the poulterers say that 

 they sell large numbers of them at good prices. Indeed, 

 so successful is the French goose that great quantities 

 of his race are imported into England in an attenuated 

 condition during the summer, and are sent into the 

 country to be fattened for the London market at 

 Michaelmas. 



A large trade is carried on in France at Berry, Tou- 



