246 REPTILES AXD BIRDS. 



lace, and is probably the progenitor of our domestic bird. Its upper 

 jiarts are of an ashen brown, the lower portions of a dark grey. An 

 adult bird is almost three feet long. 



The Domestic or Common Goose (Anser sylvestris) has been made 

 the source of great utility and profit. It appears to be the civilised 

 offspring of the Grey-lag Goose, to which it bears the same propor- 

 tions as other tame animals bear to their prototypes. Mr. Yarrell 

 was of opinion that the White-fronted Goose (Anser albifrons) has 

 concurred, with the Anser ferus, in producing our domestic race. 



In our poultry-yards the Domestic Goose begins, in the month of 

 March, to lay from eight to twelve eggs. Incubation lasts for a 

 month. No birds are more easily reared than goslings ; they issue 

 from the shell full of life and covered with a delicate down. It is, 

 however, necessary to keep them shut up for the first few days ; if 

 the weather permits, they may soon be released. Their first food is 

 a paste formed of barley roughly ground, mixed with bran, mois- 

 tened, and boiled in milk, with the addition of a few chopped-up 

 lettuce leaves. When at large, it is necessary to keep them carefully 

 from hemlock and other poisonous plants. 



Our ancestors, the Celts, the Gauls, and the Franks, reared a 

 large number of these birds, and carried on a considerable trade in 

 them, especially with Italy. Pliny, in his " Natural History," relates 

 that he has seen immense droves of geese, which were making their 

 way towards Rome from different districts of Gaul, but especially 

 from the country of the Morini (now forming the departments of the 

 Nord and Pas de Calais). The conductors of these feathered flocks 

 were in the habit of placing the tired ones in front, so that, bein^ 

 pushed forward by the whole column behind them, they were forced 

 to move on in spite of themselves. In the present day, numerous 

 flocks of geese are driven in the same manner into Spain from the 

 French departments of Lot, Dordogne, Lot-et-Garonn$, Gers, 

 Tarn, &c. 



The Goose, in its coarse and somewhat democratic condition, was 

 good enough food for the Romans of the Republic ; but at a later 

 period, when the people became more refined in their tastes, they 

 invented a barbarous method of fattening it. By depriving them of 

 water, movement, and light, an extraordinary development of the 

 liver was produced, which gave them a particularly savoury flavour. 

 This invention — the triumph of modern gastronomy — dates as far 

 back as the days of Augustus and Varro ; indeed, two persons of 

 consular dignity disputed the honour of being its originator. 



In order to fatten geese in this way, an abundant supply of food 



