32 
ANATTDA5. 
to the water, turning round from time to time, and cackling so as 
to guide her aright. After this the two proceeded to the hall- 
door, where a feed of oats was given to them, the mare and gander 
eating together out of the same vessel. The mare was commonly 
ridden into the neighbouring post-town for letters, and the first 
indication of her return was announced by the gander, who knew 
the sound of her feet long before she came in sight. The gan- 
der's feet were severely injured by the mare having accidentally 
trodden on them. 
Towards a wounded comrade that has been lamed by being 
cruelly struck with a stone, or otherwise, the reverse of affection 
is, however, generally shown by the tame goose. Even after the 
sufferer is driven from the flock and severely worried for presuming 
to join its stronger brethren, I have remarked one after another 
of the main body pursue the unfortunate individual for the pur- 
pose of driving it still further from their vicinity. 
On the acute hearing of geese much has been written since the 
time they saved the Roman Capitol ! but, in another sense, that 
of vision, they are perhaps as acute. I have been often struck 
with their keenness of sight, as evinced by sudden and loud 
cacklings the moment any objects they were unaccustomed to would 
come in view, as, for instance, one day at Wolf-hill, when a small 
flock of curlews flying very high and quite silently over the pond 
on which were four geese, these birds, from the first moment of 
the curlews' appearance, became most vociferous, so as to attract 
my attention to the cause. 
This note appears in the journal of the late John Templeton, 
Esq. — “ December 13, 1806. I was greatly entertained with 
observing a gander searching for and raising carrots. With 
considerable exertion he removed the earth around the root with 
his bill, which, on becoming clotted with earth, he shook until 
cleared ; and when he had bared the root sufficiently to get a firm 
hold with his bill, he then, sometimes with considerable exer- 
tions, pulled it entirely out." 
The value of the tame goose, as estimated by Montagu in the 
Supplement to his Ornithological Dictionary, is extraordinary. 
