Crass II. GREY LAG GOOSE. 
and quils, and the same is renewed four times. 
more between that and Michaelmas, for feathers 
only. The old geese submit quietly to the 
operation, but the young ones are very noisy 
and unruly. I once saw this performed, and 
observed, that goslins of six weeks old were not 
spared; for their tails were plucked, as I was 
told, to habituate them early to what they were 
to come to. If the season prove cold, num- 
bers of the geese die by this barbarous custom. 
When the flocks are numerous, about ten 
pluckers ‘are employed, each with a coarse 
apron up to his chin. 
Vast numbers of geese are driven annu- 
ally to London to supply the markets, among 
them all the superannuated geese and ganders 
(called here Cagmags) which, by a long course 
of plucking, prove uncommonly tough and dry. 
The feathers are a considerable article of com- 
merce; those from Somersetshire are esteemed 
the best, and those from Jreland the worst. 
It will not here be foreign to the subject to 
give some account of the feathers that other birds 
and other countries supply our island with, which 
was communicated to us by an intelligent person 
in the feather trade. 
Eider down is imported from Denmark; the 
ducks that.supply it being inhabitants of AHud- 
231 
