THE CANADA GOOSE. 
27 
placed in a yard in town for the night, previous to his intended 
removal to the country on the following morning. Not content, 
however, with his temporary domicile, he made his escape over 
the high wall of the yard into the street. Here, being unable to 
give a good account of himself, like many another wanderer of the 
night, he was apprehended by “the watch/' and borne off, a 
second time prisoner — but, in this instance, to the police-office, 
where, with other vagrants, he was confined during the night. 
How one wishes to have heard Dogberry and Verges descant 
upon his case ! In the morning, the owner, after some difficulty, 
traced the Canadian's “ whereabouts," and, having duly proved 
his property in the same, had the prisoner liberated. He was 
kept for several years afterwards, and permitted to have the free 
use of his wings all the time ; but to these he was most unwilling 
to resort, submitting even to be caught rather than do so. If 
his owner wished to see a flight, the bird had to be laid hold of, 
taken to a distant field, and then set down, when he would at 
once rise into the air and return to the pond. He was extremely 
bold in spring, and attacked every human being who had the 
temerity to come near his “ beat." He once beset a poor woman 
unexpectedly, and, flying up, alighted between her shoulders, 
and flapped both sides of her head so violently with his wings, 
that she fell to the ground in th'e utmost terror, unaware of the 
nature of her assailant. I once suffered this bird to strike me 
with his wing, that I might have some idea what the blow of a 
swan's wing — said to be so severe — might be, but which directly 
I had no desire to feel. The blow pained me very considerably, 
and the front of my leg, where struck, did not lose its black and 
yellow complexion for about three weeks.* 
The male bird of a pair kept on a pond in the Belfast 
Botanic Garden was, from his boldness in spring, the terror of 
all the youngsters that approached even the vicinity of the water. 
These birds, like many other species, can foretell the coming 
* The late Dr. Ferrar stated to a friend, that when resident-surgeon in one of the 
Dublin hospitals, a man who had his leg splintered by the blow of a swan’s wing, 
was brought to him for treatment. Some of the small pieces of bone came away, 
and the sufferer was permanently lamed. 
