THE GOOSE. 



sharpiir pointed and of a whitish color, whereiu is contained a 

 thing in form like a lace of silke finely woven as it were toge- 

 ther ; one end whereof is fastened into the inside of the shell 

 even as the fish of oisters and muskles are ; the other end 

 is made fast into the beUy of a rude mass or lump which in 

 time Cometh to the shape and form of a bird : when it is per- 

 fectly formed the shell gapeth open and the first thing that 

 appeareth is the aforesaid laoe or string, next come the legs of 

 the bird hanging out, and as it groweth greater it openeth the 

 shell by degrees, till at length it is all come forth and hangeth 

 only by the biU. In short space after it cometh to full matu- 

 ritie and faJleth into the sea, where it gathereth feathers and 

 groweth to a fowl bigger than a mallard and lesser than a 

 goose, which the people of Lancashire call by no other name 

 than a ' tree-goose ;' which place aforesaid and all those parts 

 adjoining do so abound therewith that one of the best is bought 

 for three pence." 



Notwithstanding sage Gerard's emphatic declaration, " If 

 any doubt, may it please them to repair unto me, and I shall 

 satisfy them by the testimony of good witnesses," it is to be 

 hoped the " people of Lancashire," and of every other shire, 

 are no longer guilty of such credulity. 



The Canada goose is a bird of considerable importance in 

 the United States. In the Hudson's Bay territories, this 

 animal is periodically anxiously looked for, and the Indian 

 tribes of the neighbourhood call the month in which these birds 

 arrive, the goose-moon. Dr. Richardson, in his " Fauna 

 Boreali Amerioani," has the following notice of this bird, the 

 Canada goose, and its migrations : — " The arrival of this weU- 

 known bird is anxiously looked for, and hailed with great joy 

 by the natives of the woody and swampy districts, who depend 

 principally on it for subsistence during the summer. It makes 

 its first appearance in flocks of twenty or thirty, which are 

 readily decoyed within gunshot by the hunters, who conceal 

 themselves and imitate its call. Two, three, or more, are so 

 frequently killed at a shot, that the usual price of a goose is 

 the single charge of ammunition. One goose, which when fat 

 weighfi about nine pounds, is the daily ration of one of the 

 Company's (Hudson Bay) servants during the season, and is 

 reckoned equivalent to two Snow geese (Anaa hyperlorea) , or 

 three ducks, or eight pounds of buffalo and moose-meat, or two 

 pounds of ptarmigan, — or a pint of maize and four ounces ot 

 Buet. 



