THE CANADA GOOSE. 



113 



brought living geese to that place. " By per- 

 emptory orders," said I, " from the visiting 

 Custom-House officer in the river." " He is a 

 booby," said this officer : " let these geese be 

 removed, they don't pay duty." My geese and 

 wigeons were instantly withdrawn from his 

 haughty presence, and they had another jolting 

 through the streets of Hull to the water side, with 

 some fears on my part that they would not forget 

 in a hurry their being jumbled together so rudely 

 in the performance of a useless expedition. 



We steamed up the Humber, and reached 

 Walton Hall late that night. The Bernacle gan- 

 ders had borne their journey well ; but it was 

 otherwise with the two geese and three of the 

 wigeons. They appeared out of sorts, and died 

 in the course of the following week.* The two 

 surviving ganders, being bereft of their connu- 

 bial comforters, seemed to take their misfortune 

 sorely to heart for some time, till at last they 

 began to make advances for permission to enter 

 into the company of the Canadian geese. These 

 good birds did not hesitate to receive them ; 



* Perhaps their death might have been accelerated by the 

 act of pinioning them, although it seemed to have had no bad 

 effect on the ganders. 



I 



