DOMESTIC ANIMAJLS. 
208 
rarely sleep on the water, generally preferring to roost all night in the 
marshes. When the shallow bays are frozen, they seek the mouths of 
inlets near the sea, occasionally visiting the air-holes in the ice ; but 
these bays are seldom so completely frozen as to prevent them feeding 
on the bars at the entrance. 
The Canada goose is a beautiful species, and its flesh is excellent. 
The head, two-thirds of the neck, the greater quills, the rump, and tail 
are perfectly black ; the back and wings brown, edged with wood-brown ; 
the base of the neck anteriorly, and the under plumage generally, brown- 
ish gray ; a few white feathers are scattered about the eye, and a white 
cravat of a kidney shape forms a conspicuous mark on the throat ; upper 
and under tail coverts pure white ; bill and feet black. Such is a brief 
sketch of the Canada goose in a state of nature. Man, however, has 
appreciated its value, and it is kept domesticated not only in America, 
but in many parts of Europe where it breeds freely. In America the 
ordinary gray goose of Europe is very common ; but this bird does not 
thrive there so well as in Europe ; hence many prefer the Canada goose, 
which is as familiar, and its equal in other points. 
This species will breed with the common goose; and it is asserted 
that the hybrid progeny is far superior in the flavor and sapidity of its 
flesh to the unmixed progeny of the common goose. Buffon, in whose 
time the Canada goose was kept in a domestic state in France, says : 
“ Within these few years many hundreds have inhabited the great canal 
at Versailles, where they breed familiarly with the swans.” That is, we 
suppose, interbreed with the swans, an instance of which has not come 
under our own notice; the intermediate position, however, of this spe- 
cies renders the fact probable. 
Like the duck and the common goose, the Canada goose under do- 
mestication ceases to be as strictly monogamous as it is in its wild state 
— a circumstance which, in our tame anatidee, may result from the plan 
of keeping but few males, and these in association with a flock of fe- 
males, so that the ordinary results of pairing — that is, retiring from the 
rest to a secluded spot, which the mated pair exclusively occupy — are 
interfered with. Yet, as may be seen in the instance of the common 
goose, the male generally attaches himself to a particular female, while 
she is followed by her brood of goslings over the common, and is ener- 
getic in their defense. The instinct is not quite obliterated — there is a 
reigning sultana. 
It is a question worth attention, whether the Canada goose might not 
with advantage be more extensively kept in our country than it is at 
present ; it is common as an ornament to sheets of water in parks, gar- 
dens, and pleasure grounds, but is too much neglected as a bird of utility ; 
it is alike valuable for flesh and feathers ; it is not so decided a grazer 
as is the common goose ; the precincts of marshes and ponds which 
abound in aquatic vegetation, for the procuring of which its strong bill 
and long swan-like neck afford it facility, offer the most advantageous 
sites for its establishment, and in such localities we strongly recommend 
its adoption. With regard to its management little is to be said; the 
sitting females require secluded nests, free from intrusion ; and the flock, 
in addition to the vegetables they pick up, require an allowance of grain. 
