224 THE CHINA GOOSE. 



this and the Canada goose cannot be separated from the 

 true swans. A goose, however, it decidedly is, as is 

 clear from its terrestrial habits, its powerful bill, its 

 thorny tongue, and its diet of grass. 



There is something in the aspect of this creature, the 

 dark-brown stripe down its neck, its small bright eye, its 

 harsh voice, its ceremonious strut, and its affectation ol 

 seldom being in a hurry, which seem to say that it came 

 from China. It would perfectly harmonise in a picture 

 of Chinese still life ; or in a Chinese garden, with artifi- 

 cially-arranged rocks, dwarf trees, crooked trellises, and 

 zigzag pathways ; or, in a more extended landscape, it 

 would group well on a broad river, beside a boat filled 

 with shaven fishermen, with their trained cormorants 

 and pig-tailed children. If it does come from China, it 

 has no doubt been domesticated for many hundred years, 

 perhaps as long as the peacock or common fowl. An 

 evident proof of this is the large number of eggs, they 

 may be made to lay by an increased supply of nourish- 

 ing food. This is very different from the disposition to 

 "lay everlastingly," as seen in the Guinea fowl, and some 

 varieties of the domestic hen— rthe black Spanish, for 

 instance, — because the China goose does, in the end, feel 

 a strong desire to incubate as soon as her protracted 

 laying is done, whereas entire exemption from the 

 hatching fever is the great merit of the " everlasting 

 layers." If liberally furnished with oats, boiled rice, &c, 

 the China goose will, in the spring, lay from twenty to 

 thirty eggs before she begins to sit, and again in the 

 autumn, after her moult, from ten to fifteen more. It is 

 not, as in the Guinea fowl, a spontaneous flow of eggs, 

 for which the ordinary diet of the creature is sufficient, 

 but is as much dependent on feeding as the fatness to 

 which a bullock is brought. A goose belonging to Mr. 

 Dixon, which he supplied with as much oats as she 

 could eat, besides grass, potatoes, and cabbages, laid 

 eggs larger than ordinary ; one of them, with a double 

 yolk, weighed 1\ oz., or nearly half a pound. Double- 

 yolked eggs are very rare, except among birds that have 

 been long domesticated. 



Another proof is their deficient power of flight com- 



