BIRDS. 
325 
THE GOOSE. (Anserferus.) 
The farmer's Goose, who in the stubble 
Has fed without restraint or trouble, 
Grown fat with corn, and sitting still, 
Can scarce get o'er the barn-door sill ; 
And hardly waddles forth to cool ; 
Her body in the neighbouring pool ; 
Nor loudly cackles at the door, 
For cackling shows the Goose is poor. 
SWIFT. 
THE Goose is very different in outward appearance from 
the last named bird. Stupidity in her look, uncouthness 
in her walk, heaviness in her flight, are the principal cha- 
racteristics of the Goose. But why should we dwell upon 
these defects ? they are not such in the great scale of the 
creation. Her flesh feeds many, and is not disdained 
even by the great ; her feathers keep us warm ; and 
the very pen I hold in my hand was plucked from her 
wing. 
These birds are kept in vast quantities in the fens of 
Lincolnshire ; several persons there having as many as a 
thousand breeders. They breed in general only once a 
