536 
GOOSE. 
arrive at the place of their destination. These 
birds are very clamorous, and may be heard, during 
their flight, when at almost an imperceptible di- 
stance above us. They inhabit the North of Eu- 
rope, Asia, and America, and are seen early in the 
spring, flying over Sweden to the Lapland moors. 
They are said likewise to abound in Russia, Siberia, 
and Kamtschatka. This species in a state of do- 
mestication is our common goose, and in some 
regions they hold a middle place, being really wild 
in the summer, and becoming domestic in the 
winter. M. BufFon learnt this fact from Dr. San- 
chez, who communicated to him the following 
account: “I set out from Azof in autumn 1736. 
Being sick, and afraid of falling into the hands of 
the Cuban Tartars, I resolved to walk, following 
the course of the Don, and to sleep every night in 
the village of the Cossacs, who are subject to the 
Russian dominion. In the first evenings of my 
journey, I remarked a great number of geese in the 
air, which alighted and dispersed through the ham- 
let. The third especially, I saw such a multitude 
at sun-set, that I inquired of the Cossacs, among 
whom I lodged that night, whether they were tame 
geese, and if they came from a distance, as their lofty 
flight seemed to indicate. Surprised at my igno- 
rance, they replied that these birds came from the 
great Northern lakes ; and that every year on the 
breaking up of the ice, in the months of March and 
April, six or seven pairs of geese leave each hut of 
the village, which all take flight in a body, and re- 
