CHAPTER XX. 



GEESE AND SWANS, 



Geese 6elong to the family Anaiddce of modern ornithologists, and sub-family 

 Ansermm. The common domestic goose is supposed to have descended from the 

 wild Gray-Lag goose of northern Europe, Anserferus or A cimerem of the natur- 

 alists. This species has at one time extended from the British islands to China, 

 and was formerly quite numerous in England, breeding in the fen-marshes oi 

 that country. Of late years, however, it does not breed to any extent south of 



Scotland. -_ . , 



The Gray-Lag is regarded as the parent of four of our ordinary varieties of 

 geese; namely, the common gray and white goose, the white Embden, or Bremen 

 goose, the gray Toulouse goose, and the" peculiar white Sebastopol goose. 



The ordinary wild goose of America is the Canada goose, Ansee Canadensis, 

 which has been domesticatea here to a very limited extent, but has not become 

 the parent of any thoroughly domesticated breed, like the turkey, or the com- 

 mon goose. , _ 



A third species which has representatives in domestication is A. Ch/gnoides, or 

 Cygnopsis Cygwndes or the swan-like goose, represented by the knobbed Chinese 

 geese. 



A fourth species is the Egyptian goose {Chendlopex), which has sometimes been 

 bred in this country, but presents few marks of value. 



Besides these are numerous wild species, including the Bean-goose and the 

 Pink-footed goose of Britain, the Snow-geese of North America, and many others. 



THE COMMON G008B. 



"niis is one of the most anciently domesticated of fowls, as shown by the fact 

 that it was mentioned, as being in domestication, by Homer, and that geese were 

 kept in the Capitol at Rome, 388 e. c, as sacred to Juno ; this saoredness imply- 

 ing great antiquity.* 



Naturalists are not fully agreed as to the present form of the common goose, 

 but the preponderance of opinion is in favor of ascribing its origin to tiie wild 

 Gray-lag goese of northern Europe ; its difference in color from that species be- 

 ing a much smaller variation than has occurred in the cases of most other 

 aaoiently domesticated animals. 



In the wild Gray-lag, the male and female are of the same dusky hue, while in 

 de tame species the gander is generally pure white, and the goose dusky on the 

 *Wtinrte, TailoMoa AainiKiisjud. Flaiits, eto^, YoL I, p. ilD& 



