64 
PRANK FORESTER^ FIELD SPORTS. 
and is remarked for being extremely watchful, and more sensi¬ 
ble of approaching changes in the atmosphere, than tlie common 
Gray Goose. In England, France, and Germany, they have 
also been long ago domesticated. Buffon, in his account of this 
bird, observes : ‘ 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. 
The strong disposition of the wounded Wild Goose to migrate 
to the North in spring, has been already taken notice of. In¬ 
stances have occurred, where, the wounds having healed, they 
have actually succeeded in mounting into the high regions of 
the air, and joined a passing party to the North ; and extraordi¬ 
nary as it may appear, I am well assured by the testimony of 
several respectable persons, who have been eye-witnesses to 
the fact, that they have also been known to return again in the 
succeeding autumn to their former habitation. These accounts 
are strongly corroborated by a letter which I sometime ago re¬ 
ceived 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 north¬ 
ward, a flock passed over Mr. Platt’s barn-yard, and just at that 
moment their leader happening to sound his bugle note, our 
Goose, in whom its new habits and enjoyments had not quite 
extinguished the love of liberty, and remembering the well- 
known sound, spread its wings, mounted into the air, joined the 
