Toulouse Geese. 
559 
whilst, on the other hand, my Toulouse took first honours at the great London Show, where the 
birds are not taken from their pens, but judged more on the merits of their good looks, condition, 
and symmetry, and the two breeds compete in one open class. Before Birmingham Show my old 
Toulouse Geese that won first prize weighed fifty-four and a half pounds the pair, and the goslings 
forty-eight and a half pounds the pair, which showed a falling off on the former and a slight 
gain on the latter as compared with the previous year, when the weights of my old birds at the 
show itself were, old birds sixty pounds, and goslings forty-seven pounds. This weight for a 
pair is believed to be the heaviest ever attained at any exhibition. I account for the decrease 
in weight since the previous year by the fact of having in the interim lost my finest old gander, 
which, just previous to departing this life, had weighed no less than thirty-eight pounds. 
“ Some time ago I bought for a change of blood a fine gander from a celebrated fancier, which 
differed from my own strain in colour, being of a beautiful silver-grey instead of dark like my own, 
though otherwise the markings were exactly similar. I bred from him that year some splendid 
stock, which all took after their maternal relatives in colour with one exception, consisting of a 
gander, which came of exactly the same hue as his sire. Since that time, in each succeeding year, 
I find one or two — seldom more — come silver-grey ; and strange to say, they are always ganders , 
and generally remarkably fine, and superior to their brothers. I have never yet bred a single goose 
of this lighter shade. 
“Nothing as to the treatment and feeding of Toulouse Geese need be added to what I have 
already said on the rearing of the Embden variety. But I may add that there is one particular 
use to which the Toulouse Geese are put, as it is to this variety exclusively the fashionable world 
owe that favourite delicacy of the luncheon and supper-table, the famous Perigord pies, or pate 
de foie gras. For this purpose the geese are shut up in a very hot chamber, and there fed well. 
They are so kept until their livers swell to an enormous size, when they are killed, and the 
diseased organs being taken from them are potted with truffles, and the epicurean dish of foie gras 
aux trnjfes is thus made. 
“ I cannot help here noticing the very poor encouragement held out to breeders of geese by 
most of our poultry societies, many of which seem to almost ignore their existence, or if they do 
deign to give them a place in the prize sheet, the amount offered as a premium is usually so small 
that the exhibitor does not care to send his heavy and valuable specimens, at great cost for 
carriage, for the chance of gaining a sum so paltry, that when fees, carriage, &c., are paid, the 
balance stands on the wrong side, even if the birds are successful. Surely these useful birds are 
deserving of more attention than they get, when we look to their advantages of size, and other 
qualities which render them pre-eminently important as an article of food for the people. 
“ The number of breeding-stock for geese is stated by Mrs. Blair to be one male to four 
females ; but my experience has caused me to rather differ from this, and I should advise not more 
than two geese to be put to one gander. And I would also say, that though I would always 
recommend a pure breed to any one, still I am aware that a cross between the two sorts produces 
first-rate birds for table purposes only. 
“ It is well-known that geese are excellent guards to a poultry-yard ; for should any intruder 
come to the pens at night from evil (or any other) motives, or should a fox be prowling about, their 
clamour is sure to arouse the poultry-man, giving timely warning that something is amiss. We 
cannot but remember that it was to this quality Rome owed its preservation from the onslaught 
of the Gauls, the cackling of some geese confined in the Capitol putting the Romans on their 
guard in time to repulse the attack of the invaders ; for which good service the geese of the 
Capitol were declared to be sacred, and ever afterwards treated with profound respect. No goose- 
