78 
CANADA GOOSE. 
The gunners on the sea-shore have long been in the practice 
of taming the wounded of both sexes, and have sometimes suc- 
ceeded in getting them to pair and produce. The female 
always seeks out the most solitary place for her nest, not far 
from the water. On the approach of every spring, however, 
these birds discover symptoms of great uneasiness, frequently 
looking up into the air, and attempting to go off. Some whose 
wings have been closely cut, have travelled on foot in a north- 
ern direction, and have been found at the distance of several 
miles from home. They hail every flock that passes overhead, 
and the salute is sure to be returned by the voyagers, who are 
only prevented from alighting among them by the presence and 
habitations of man. The gunners take one or two of these 
domesticated geese with them to those parts of the marshes 
over which the wild ones are accustomed to fly ; and, conceal- 
ing themselves within gunshot, wait for a flight, which is no 
sooner perceived by the decoy geese, than they begin calling 
aloud, until the whole flock approaches so near as to give them 
an opportunity of discharging two and sometimes three loaded 
muskets among it, by which great havoc is made. 
The wild goose, when in good order, weighs from ten to 
twelve, and sometimes fourteen pounds. They are sold in the 
Philadelphia markets at from seventy-five cents to one dollar 
each ; and are estimated to yield half a pound of feathers a- 
piece, which produces twenty-five or thirty cents more. 
The Canada goose is now domesticated in numerous quarters 
of the country, and is remarked for being extremely watchful, 
and more sensible of approaching changes in the atmosphere 
than the common grey goose. In England, France, and Ger- 
many, they have also been long ago domesticated. Buffon, in 
his account of this bird, observes, “within these few years, 
many hundreds inhabited the great canal at Versailles, where 
they breed familiarly with the swans ; they were oftener on 
the grassy margins than in the water and adds, “ there is 
at present a great number of them on the magnificent pools 
that decorate the charming gardens of Chantilly.” Thus has 
