252 duck. 



Tame Goose, Gen. Syn. vi. 461. 21. Var. A. Id. Sup. p. 273. Will. Engl. 358. Fl, 

 Scot. i. No. 206. Tour in Scot. 1769. 4to. p. 10. Id. 8vo. p. 8. Bew. ii. pi. p. 

 297. Orn. Diet. 



THIS is the Grey-lag, in a state of domestication, and from 

 which it varies in colour; though much less than in the Mallard, or 

 Cock, being more or less verging to grey; but in all cases, the 

 whiteness of the vent and upper tail coverts is manifest; frequently 

 found quite, especially the males ; and doubts have arisen, which of 

 the two colours should have the preference in point of eating. 



Tame Geese are no where seen in greater numbers than in the 

 Fens of Lincolnshire, many persons keeping no less than one thou- 

 sand breeders.* The uses of the quills and feathers are too well 

 known throughout Europe f to be here noticed, and for the sake of 

 them the birds are stripped whilst alive, once in a year, and some- 

 times twice, for the quills, and from three to five times for the 

 feathers, not sparing even Goslings of six weeks old, from which 

 the feathers of the tail are plucked : the first plucking is about Lady 

 Day, for both quills and feathers, the other four times between that 

 and Michaelmas, for feathers only;$ in general the birds are not 

 considerable sufferers, though if the cold weather comes on suddenly, 

 numbers die in consequence. The possessors of these, except in the 

 apparently cruel usage of plucking, treat them with sufficient kind- 

 ness, lodging them in the same room with themselves; whilst sitting, 

 each bird has its allotted space, in rows of wicker pens, placed one 

 above another ; and it is said that the person who takes charge of 



* The feeding of Geese would appear to be a business of some notice, as we find in the 

 London Gazette, Jan. 31, 1793, the name of Thos. B. of Plaistow, in Essex, Goose-feeder, 

 among the list of bankrupts. 



f In the countries bordering on the Levant, and throughout Asia, the use of Goose 

 feathers is utterly unknown ; we find mattresses stuffed with wool, camels hair, and cotton, 

 instead. Pliny, indeed, mentions the use of bolsters of feathers to lay the head upon, in 

 his time; but whether put to the same use now, seems not certain. 



* In Young's Agriculture of the County of Lincoln, he talks of Geese being plucked for 

 the wing feathers four or five times in the year, taking ten feathers from each Goose. 



