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Concord, Mass.
1916.

The Goose & Guinea-hen romance.

  Late in the spring of 1915 a dealors' [dealer's] catalogue of
"Fancy Poultry" reached me, by Rural Delivery mail, at
our Concord farm house. Besides advertising living fowl in
bewildering variety and of rare attractiveness or
"utility", if illustrations and text pertaining to them could
be credited, it offered so-called "settings" of their
eggs. These so tempted me that I finally purchased
rather many - at appropriately "fancy" prices, it is
perhaps needless to add. They were put under Plymouth
Rock hens who incubated them with admirable
fidelity but not much success. Of the few that
hatched one produced a Guinea-fowl chick, another
a gosling said to be that of an African Goose.
This bird was identified, after its death in Jan. 1917, by
Outram Bangs who reports that it is an essentially
typical specimen of Anser anser, the Grey Leg Goose of Europe,
differing from wild birds of that species only in having the head
somewhat browner, the bill & feet less shapely. Each
of the two fluffy little things was the only one of its kind
then and there brought into the world. This
happened about July 10, during my absence from Concord.