$58 



UNITED STATES 



which winters in the bays adjoining the Atlantic 

 ocean, a tame and domesticated bird. Individuals of 

 this species have accordingly been catched alive, 

 after having been wing-broken by a shot, and carried 

 home free from any other injury. When thus dis- 

 abled from fiying, they become gentle, and will mate 

 with common geese. They even breed together ; 

 but the offspring is a mule incapable of further pro- 

 pogation. Mr. Daniel Coles, of Oyster bay, has 

 ^one a step beyond others in this business. He has a 

 wild goose and gander in a domesticated state, which 

 he keeps from flying away by taking off the extreme 

 bones of the wings at the joint. The goose has laid 

 eggs, and hatched a brood of goslings. For fear of 

 losing the young ones, their wings have been treated 

 in the same manner; and the whole family now 

 composes (September, 1800) a beautiful stock of 

 wild geese, in a domesticated state. They are as 

 gentle as common geese, and live upon the food ob- 

 tained about a house and on a farm quite as welL 

 Mr. Coles even found that the goslings, on the day 

 of being hatched^ ate Indian meal as readily as 

 chickens. They are more active and handsome than 

 the tame goose; and their long necks are arched 

 more like those of swans. If this experiment should 

 be continued for several generations, it is highly pro* 

 bable the temper and habits of the breed may be 

 changed, so that the descendants of these wild geese 

 may lose their inclination to fly from country to 

 country, and attach themselves, like turkeys, ducks, 

 and other birds, whose progenitors were once wild, 

 to the society and protection of man. Should Mr* 



