288 



DOMESTIC GOOSE. 



Chap. VIII. 



^^ 



1849, perfectly fertile offspring. 23 Yarrell 24 has observed that 

 the lower part of the trachea of the domestic goose is sometimes 

 flattened, and that a ring of white feathers sometimes surrounds 

 the base of 'the beak. These characters seem at first good indi- 

 cations of a cross at some former period with the white-fronted 

 goose (A. albifrons) ; but the white ring is variable in this 

 latter species, and we must not overlook the law of analogous 

 variation ; that is, of one species assuming some of the characters 

 of allied species. 



As the goose has proved so inflexible in its organization under 

 long-continued domestication, the amount of variation which 

 can be detected is worth giving. It has increased in size and 

 in productiveness ; 25 and varies from white to a dusky colour. 

 Several observers 26 have stated that the gander is more fre- 

 quently white than the goose, and that when old it almost 

 invariably becomes white ; but this is not the case with the 

 parent-form, the A. ferus. Here, again, the law of analogous 

 variation may have come into play, as the snow-white male of 

 the Kock-Goose (Bernicla antarcticd) standing on the sea-shore 

 by his dusky partner is a sight well known to all those who 

 have traversed the sounds of Tierra del Fuego and the Falkland 

 Islands. Some geese have top-knots ; and the skull beneath, as 

 before stated, is perforated. A sub-breed has lately been formed 

 with the feathers reversed at the back of the head and neck. 27 

 The beak varies a little in size, and is of a yellower tint than 

 in the wild species ; but its colour and that of the legs are 

 both slightly variable. 28 This latter fact deserves attention, 

 because the colour of the legs and beak is highly serviceable 

 in discriminating the several closely allied wild forms. 29 At our 



23 See also Hunter's ' Essays,' edited 

 by Owen, vol. ii. p. 322. 



24 Yarrell's • British Birds,' vol. iii. p. 

 142. He refers to the Laplanders 

 domesticating the goose. 



25 L. Lloyd, ' Scandinavian Adven- 

 tures,' 1854, vol. ii. p. 413, says that 

 the wild goose lays from five to eight 

 eggs, which is a much fewer number 

 than that laid by our domestic goose. 



26 The Bev. L. Jenyns seems first to 

 have made this observation in his 

 'British Animals.' See also Yarrell, 



and Dixon in his ' Ornamental Poultry ' 

 (p. 139), and ' Gardener's Chronicle,' 

 1857, p. 45. 



2 ? Mr. Bartlett exhibited the head and 

 neck of a bird thus characterised at the 

 Zoological Soc, Feb. 1860. 



28 W. Thompson, 'Natural Hist, of Ire- 

 land,' 1851, vol. iii. p. 31. The Kev. E. S. 

 Dixon gave me some information on the 

 varying colour of the beak and legs. 



2 9 Mr. A. Strickland, in ' Annals and 

 Mag. of Nat. Hist.,' 3rd series, vol. iii., 

 1859 p. 122. 



