Feathered Folk 357 



wings, and pecking to draw blood, his vicious 

 blue eyes snapping all the while. Blue-eyes 

 are among the gander's dear distinctions, but 

 he is proud in proportion to the spotlessness 

 of his white coat, and tyrannic to his geese 

 in proportion as they are gray. 



Live geese can be plucked of merchant- 

 able down every six weeks between April 

 and October. The down is picked from 

 the breast and underneath the wings. The 

 pickers must have a care, though, not to pluck 

 a ridge of down, called the bolster, growing 

 where the wings join the body. If they do, 

 the geese cannot hold their wings up, but 

 move with them hanging uncomfortably until 

 the bolster grows again. A well-fed goose 

 yields yearly a pound of feathers. 



All domestic fowls moult between the last 

 of July and mid- September. Apparently the 

 process of getting new clothes is exhausting, 

 even if they do not have to fight with mo- 

 distes and tailors. Eggs in the moulting sea- 

 son are as scarce as the proverbial hen's 

 teeth — that is, eggs fresh-laid. Turkeys are 

 the least disconsolate among the fowls, but 

 even with them, the gobblers cease from 

 strutting and lose their big rolling voices. 

 Cocks crow languidly right in each other's 

 faces without prcfvoking the ghost of a fight. 

 Both cocks and hens cackle upon the least 



