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ANAS CANADENSIS. 
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 America already added to 
the stock of domestic fowls two species, the turkey and 
the Canada goose, superior to most in size, and inferior 
to none in usefulness ; for it is acknowledged by an 
English naturalist, of good observation, that this last 
species “ is as familiar, breeds as freely, and is in every 
respect as valuable as the common goose.”* 
The strong disposition of the wounded wild geese to 
migrate to the north in spring, has been already taken 
notice of. Instances have occurred where, their wounds 
having healed, they have actually succeeded in mounting 
into the higher regions of the air, and joined a passing 
party to the north ; and, extraordinary as it may appear, 
1 am well assured by the testimony of several respec- 
table persons, who have been eye-witnesses to the fact, 
that they have been also known to return again in the 
succeeding autumn to their former habitation. These 
accounts are strongly corroborated by a letter which I 
some time ago received from an obliging correspondent 
at New York ; which I shall here give at large, 
permitting him to tell his story in his own way, and 
conclude my history of this species: — 
“ Mr Platt, a respectable farmer on Long Island, 
being out shooting in one of the bays which, in that 
part of the country, abound with water-fowl, wounded 
a wild goose. Being wing-tipped, and unable to fly, he 
caught it, and brought it home alive. It proved to be 
a female ; and, turning it into his yard, with a flock of 
tame geese, it soon became quite tame and familiar, 
and in a little time its wounded wing entirely healed. 
In the following spring, when the wild geese migrate 
to the northward, a flock passed over Mr Platt’s barn 
yard ,* and, just at that moment, their leader happening 
* Bewick, vol. ii, p. 255. 
