CANADA GOOSE. 573 
mated to yield half a pound of feathers apiece, which produces twenty- 
five or thirty cents more. 
The Canada Goose is now domesticated in numerous quarters of the 
country, and is remarked for being extremely watchful, and more sen- 
sible of approaching changes in the atmosphere than the Common Gray 
Goose. In England, France, and Germany, they have also been long 
ago domesticated. Buffon, in his account of this bird, observes, 
« Within these few years, many hundreds inhabited the great canal at 
Versailles, where they breed familiarly with the Swans; they were 
oftener on the grassy margins than in the water ;” and adds, “ There is 
at present a great number of them on the magnificent pools that deco- 
rate the charming gardens of Chantilly.” Thus has America already 
added to the stock of dormestic fowls two species, the Turkey and the 
Canada Goose, superior to most in size, and inferior to none in useful- 
ness; for it is acknowledged by an English naturalist, of good ob- 
servation, that this last species “is as familiar, breeds as freely, and is 
in every respect as valuable as the Common Goose.” * 
The strong disposition of the wounded Wild Geese to migrate to the 
north in spring, has been already.taken notice of. Instances have oc- 
curred where, their wounds having healed, they have actually succeeded 
in mounting into the higher regions of the air, and joined a passing 
party to the north; and, extraordinary as it may appear, I am well as- 
sured by the testimony of several respectable persons, who have been 
eye-witnesses to the fact, that they have been also known to return again 
in the succeeding autumn to their former habitation. These accounts 
are strongly corroborated by a letter which I some time avo received 
from an obliging correspondent at New York; which I shall here give 
at large, permitting him to tell his story in his own way, and con- 
clude my history of this species : — 
“ Mr, Platt, a respectable farmer on Long Island, being out shooting 
in one of the bays, which, in that part of the country, abound with 
water-fowl, wounded a Wild Goose. Being wing-tipped, and unable 
to fly, he caught it, and brought it home alive. It proved to be a fe- 
male ; and, turning it into his yard, with a flock of tame Geese, it soon 
became quite tame and 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. Platt’s barn- 
yard; and, just at that moment, their leader happening to sound his 
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 was usual, returned from the northward in great numbers, to 
pass the winter in our bays and rivers. Mr. Platt 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 tires, alight in the middle of the 
yard. Imagine his surprise and pleasure, when, by certain well-re- 
membered signs, he recognized in one of the three his long-lost fugi- 
tive. It was she indeed! She had travelled many hundred miles to 
* Rewrex, vol. ii p. 953 
