568 
The Illustrated Book of Poultry. 
cases, no doubt, such specimens may have been escaped birds from parks or menageries ; but this 
could hardly be the case with a flock of nine seen at the Isle of Man in 1838, and another flock, 
estimated at no less than eighty, seen in Hampshire, after a tremendous gale. In the southern 
parts of Europe it is common enough, no doubt crossing the Mediterranean from Africa, its native 
home. Its place in history is well marked — perhaps more so than that of any other variety. It is 
clearly alluded to by Aristotle, Aristophanes, Athenseus, and other writers ; and Herodotus makes 
special mention of it among the sacred birds of Egypt ; while Mr. Salt states that wherever the 
goose is represented on the walls of temples, this variety is clearly recognisable. 
In the Regent’s Park Gardens, in 1838, Mr. Yarrell states, a female Egyptian Goose paired 
with a male of the Penguin variety of ducks, and the eggs were fertile. This occurred during 
two successive seasons. The Penguin being a mere artificial variety of the common duck, this 
would appear to give the Nile Goose a somewhat intermediate position between the duck and 
goose tribes, and its affinity to the Shieldrakes is indeed evident to any observer. 
THE GAMBIAN GOOSE, called also the Spur-winged Goose (. P lectropterus Gambensis ), 
has been rarely seen at shows. Like the Nile Goose, it has a spur instead of a knob on the wrist- 
joint of the wing, but in this bird the spur is more developed and very powerful. The beak has at 
the base a large excrescence, as in the Swans or Chinese Goose, and the toes are somewhat long. 
The plumage is black and white ; the cheeks, throat, under parts, and shoulders of wing being 
generally white, and other parts bright green black. The eyes are reddish brown, the bill and legs 
dull red. The carriage is very upright and tall. This goose is shy in confinement, but has been 
known to breed. 
THE SEBASTOPOL GOOSE. — This singular variety appears to be not uncommon on the 
Danube, and has been called the Danubian Goose, though generally known by the name first 
mentioned. It appears to be a variety of the common goose, breeding freely with it, and the 
progeny being perfectly fertile ; the shape also resembling it, and the sole peculiarity being in the 
plumage, which somewhat resembles in character that of the Frizzled Fowl. Mr. Fowler makes 
the following remarks upon this breed: — 
“They are of the same colour as the Embdens, pure white ; their peculiarity being that their 
feathers appear to grow the wrong way, and from the tail and saddle they have long trailing 
feathers, beautifully curved like the sickle-feathers of a Dorking cock, but so thin in Tie quill that 
the least breeze blows them about. Altogether they are most curious in appearance, and they once 
brought forth from an American friend the remark that ‘ they must surely have been hatched in 
a gale of wind.’ They seem to be rare in this country, though they certainly deserve more 
attention, being a very great addition to our ornamental varieties of water-fowl.’’ 
We have already compared the plumage of Sebastopol Geese to that of the Frizzled Fowl ; 
and it will be noticed as a curious coincidence, that both alike have been described — one by Mr. 
Tollemache and the other by Mr. Fowler — as resembling birds ruffled by a gale of wind. But on 
closer examination the comparison only partially holds ; for while the feathers of the frizzled birds 
have considerable strength, and are as a rule properly webbed, those of the Sebastopol Geese are 
very weak, and partially destitute of adhesion in the barbules, thus resembling in a considerable 
degree those of the Silky Fowl, and being, in fact, midway in character between the Silky and the 
Frizzled. There is, however, a special peculiarity in these feathers, as already quoted from Mr. 
Darwin at page 503, in that the stems of the feathers are in many places themselves split up into 
narrow filaments, which are furnished with barbules, and for the time resemble, therefore, the barbs 
