GEESE. 
171 
their bed-chambers ; three rows of wicker pens are 
placed one above another in every apartment ; each 
Goose having its separate lodge divided from the 
others, of which it keeps possession during the time 
of sitting. A person called a gozzard, attends the 
flock, and twice a day drives the whole to water, 
then brings them hack to their habitations, helping 
those that live in the upper stories to their nests, 
without ever misplacing a single bird. They are, as 
we have observed in treating of Feathers (vol. i., p. 81 ), 
plucked frequently, we believe not less than five times 
a year ; the first plucking being on Lady-day, for 
feathers and quills ; the remaining pluckings, between 
that time and Michaelmas, being for feathers only. 
The old Geese submit with tolerable patience to this 
barbarous operation, but the young ones are noisy and 
unruly. Even goslings of six weeks' old are not 
spared ; their tails being plucked, as it is said, to 
habituate them to future plucking. 
When ready for the London market, flocks, from 
two to nine thousand in number, are sent off, tra- 
velling slowly from three in the morning until nine 
at night, during which time they will accomplish, 
on an average, about eight or ten miles. 
Those who live near commons can turn the rear- 
ing of a few Geese to good account, and might reap 
still greater advantages if they paid due attention. 
If well kept, a Goose will lay not far short of one 
hundred eggs a-year. The French, who understand 
the management of poultry much better than we do, 
put their Goose-eggs under large hens of common 
fowls, in the proportion of from four to five eggs to 
each ; and under Turkeys, to which they give nine or 
