SEBASTOPOL GEESE. 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
GEESE. 
T he origin of the domestic goose is generally referred by naturalists to the 
well known wild species the Grey-lag goose, the Anser ferus. Mr. Yarrell, 
in his ‘‘History of British Birds,” writing of the Grey-lag, states, — “This 
species is considered to he the origin from whence our valuable domestic race is 
derived ; to show the aptitude of the wild bird to this purpose I may mention 
that the Zoological Society possessed a wild Grey-lag gander that had never 
associated with other species of wild geese kept on the same water with him, 
hut that paired with a domestic goose, selected from exhibiting in her plumage 
the marks which belong to, 'and distinguish, the true Grey-lag. The goose laid a 
sitting of eggs, the offspring from which were prolific.” At the exhibition of 
