GLASS II. AVES: ORDER 8. NATATOIiES. 
313 
ing. Pennant says: "Tame 
geese are kept in vast multi- 
tudes in the fens of Lincoln- 
shire; a single person has 
frequently one thousand old 
geese, each of which will rear 
seven, so that toward the end 
of the season he will become 
master of eight thousand. 
During the breeding season 
these birds arc lodged in the 
same houses with the inhab- 
itants, and even in their verv 
bed-chauibei's ; in every apart- 
ment are three rows of coarse 
wicker-pens, placed one above 
another ; each bird has its sep- 
arate lodge divided from the 
other which it keeps possession 
of during the time of sitting. 
A person called a Gozzard^ that is, Gooseherd^ attends the flock, and twice a day drives the Avhole 
to water ; then brings them back to their habitations, helping those that live in the upper stories 
to their nests, without ever misplacing a single bird. The geese are plucked five times in the 
year; the first plucking is at Lady-Day, for feathers and quills, and the same is renewed four 
times more between that and Michaelmas for feathers only. The old geese submit quietly to the 
operation, but the young ones are very noisy and unruly. I once saw this performed, and ob- 
served that goslins of six weeks old were not spared ; for their tails were plucked, as I was told, 
to habituate them early to what they are to come to. If the season proves cold, numbers of the 
geese die by this barbarous custom. When the flocks are numerous, about ten pluckers are em- 
ployed, each with a coarse apron up to his chin. Vast numbers of geese — sometimes two or 
three thousand in a flock — are driven annually to London to supply the markets, among them all 
the superannuated geese and ganders — called the ' Cagmags' — which, by a long course of pluck- 
ing, prove uncommonly tough and dry. The feathers are a considerable article of commerce ; 
those from Somersetshire are esteemed the best, and those from Ireland the worst." The liver 
seems to have been a favorite morsel with epicures in all ages, and invention appears to have 
been active in exercising the means of increasing the volume of that organ. The 2)ate de 
foie d'o'ie de Strasbourg is not more in request now than were the great goose-livers in the time 
of the Romans. This bird lives to a great age, sometimes seventy years or more. 
The Gkay Lag-Goose, ^./m<s, is thirty-five inches long; upper parts ash-brown and ash- 
gray ; under parts white. It is migratory, proceeding to the northern parts of Europe and Asia 
in summer, and to the south in winter. This is the Common Wild Goose of Eno-land. 
Other foreign species are the Bean Goose, A. segetum : the Piisk-footed Goose, A. hrachyrhijn- 
chus : the Red-breasted Goose, A. rnficolli^ : the Egyptian Goose, A. JEgyj^tiacus : the Spur- 
wiNGED or Gambo Goose, A'. Gamhensis. There are several species in Asia not here enumerated. 
The following are found on both continents : the White-fronted or Laughing Goose, A. albi- 
frons, is twenty-seven inches long ; common in Europe and in the North American Fur Coun- 
tries, but rare along our coasts : the Bernicle Goose, A. leucopsis, twenty-five inches long ; was 
formerly supposed to be bred from bernicles, whence its name ; found in Europe ; abundantly in 
the Baltic, and occasionally, it is said, in Hudson's Bay: the Brent Goose, ^. torguatus, a 
small species, twenty-one inches long; common in both Europe and America. On our coast it 
is a favorite game bird, known by the name of Brant 
The Snow-Goose, A. hyperhoreus, is twenty-eight inches long, and is known on our coast by 
the names of White Brant and Blue-winged Goose. 
Vol. II.— 40 
THE CANADA GOOSB, Oil WILD GOOSE OF AMERICA. 
