GEESE. 208 



In SIM and form these geese are somewhat small and slender ; their plumage 

 i? generally gray, shading into chestnut and yellow on the breast and undei 

 parts, and into white on the shoulders. The feathers are beautifully pencilled 

 with black lines, which unite to form a stripe, or bar, across the wings, of aricb 

 metallic lustre. 



These geese have the reputation of being unproductive. 



THE CEBEOPSIS GOOSE. 



This curious goose, the Cereopsis Npvat-HoUandia; is so called from the cere oi 

 wax-like coating which covers a large portion of the. beak. It is a native ol 

 Australia, where it has, however, become almost extinct. It is some times also 

 called the Cape Barron goose, from being found among the Cape Barron islands, 

 in Bass's straits. It is of large size ; of a brownish-gray color ; bears confinement 

 well, breeding without difficulty, feeding on grass, like the common goose, and 

 fattening readily ; but it is very quarrelsome in disposition, which detracts from 

 its value as a domestic fowl. 



This goose has beeu bred at the Zoological Gardens in Bngland, but has not 

 generally been brought into domestication. The good qualities which it pos- 

 sesses would seem to justify the attempt to breed out its faulty disposition, by 

 crossing with more peaeeabie breeds. 



THE MANAGEMENT OF GEESE. 



If the goose i< well fed and housed she will commence laying early in the 

 spring, and will lay in the neighborhood of a dozen eggs, when she will want 

 to sit. Her time of incubation is about twenty-nine day's. The goslings are 

 hardy, and require about the same attention as ducklings, except that grass and 

 water are more necessaiy to them. Grass is the principal food of geese during 

 the summer, and in pursnit of this food they are apt, when kept in large flocks, 

 to injure the pastures for other stock, both by fouling them with their droppings 

 and by close grazin;;. They do not bite off the grass like cattle and sheep, but 

 pull it off, frequently bringing along a portion of the root. 



As they lay so fe »■ etrgs, geese are kept only for their flesh and feathers. The 

 latter are plucked two or three times during the summer, and the annual yield 

 is from a pound to a pound and a quarter, worth from forty to sixty cents a 

 pound, while a good, fat, young goose should weigh ten to fourteen pounds, 

 dressed, in the fall, and be worth from one to two dollars. 



Oeese live to a considerable age — ten to twenty, or even forty years — and the 

 females are better layers and better mothers after they are two or three years 

 old. The ganders, however, become pugnacious and unproductive, hence they 

 should not be kept beyond two or three years. For breeding purposes there 

 ^ould be one gander for every three or four geese. 



The disposition of geese to wander about is one of the drawbacks to keeping 

 them, and no one should undertake it whose fences are not good enough to pre- 

 vent them from trespassing upon neighbors. By clipping their wings they are 

 very easily restrained. 



