GOOSE. 
537 
turn not till the beginning of winter, as it is rec- 
koned in Russia, that is, at the first snow; that 
these flocks arrive then, increased sometimes a 
hundred-fold ; and dividing themselves, each little 
party seeks, with its new progeny, the houses 
where they lived the preceding winter. I had con- 
stantly that spectacle every evening for three 
weeks. The air was filled with infinite multitudes 
of geese, which dispersed in bands : the girls and 
women at the doors of their huts, looking at the 
flight, were calling out ‘There go my geese,’ ‘There 
go the geese of such a one and each of the bands 
alighted in the court where they had spent the pre- 
ceding; winter. I continued to see these birds till I 
reached Nova Pauluska, where the winter was al- 
ready intense.” 
Wild geese are found in our fenny counties, 
where they breed, and continue the whole year. 
The young ones are frequently taken ; and after 
they are fatted, it is said, their flavour is much 
superior to the domestic goose. The feathers of 
these birds form so great an article of traffic in this 
country, that both in Lincolnshire and Somerset- 
shire vast multitudes are repeatedly plucked to 
furnish us with feather-beds. These geese are 
tame, and are kept in such flocks that one person 
will sometimes possess a thousand old ones, each of 
which will rear seven ; so that towards the end of 
the season he wdl become master of eight thousand. 
The order observed by the inhabitants with respect 
to their geese is well detailed by Mr. Pennant, who 
