mical farm-house; for there are the feathers to swell the mistress's accumulating stock of beds, there is the dripping to enrich the dumpling, pudding, or whatever other farinaceous food may be the fashion of the country for the servants to eat, there are the giblets to go to market or make a pie for a special occasion, and there is the wholesome, solid, savoury flesh for all parties in their due proportion.

They are accused by some of rendering the spots where they feed offensive to other stock; but the secret of this is very simple. A Horse bites closer than an Ox, a Sheep goes nearer to the ground than a Horse, but, after the sharpest shaving by Sheep, the Goose will polish up the turf, and grow fat upon the remnants of others. Consequently, where Geese are kept in great numbers on a small area, little will be left to maintain any other grasseating creature. But if the commons are not short, it will not be found that other grazing animals object to feed either together with, or immediately after a flock of Geese.

Many instances of the longevity of the Goose are on record, and it is needless to repeat them. I have myself seen one upwards of thirty years of age followed by a thriving family; but they are capable of reaching double and treble that extent of life. Indeed, the duration of the existence of the Goose seems to be indefinitely prolonged, and not terminable by the usual causes of decay and old age (like Pliny's Eagle, which would live for ever, did not the upper mandible become so excessively curved as to prevent eating, and cause death from starvation); and reminding us of the accounts, apparently not fabulous, which we hear in these modern times respecting the Pelican and the cartilaginous fishes. One thing is certain, that housewives do not consider Geese to be worth much for breeding purposes, till they are four or five years old. They will lay and produce some few young ones in the course of their second summer; but older birds fetch much higher prices as stock. Three or four Geese may be allotted to one Gander; the male bird is known by

being generally white, and also by his bold and patronising carriage. He is an attentive sentinel while his dames are incubating, but renders them no personal assistance by taking his turn upon the nest-an error which seems to have originated with Goldsmith. When the young at length go forth to graze, he accompanies them with the greatest parental pride and assiduity. The Goose has the additional merit of being the very earliest of our Poultry :

"On Candlemas day

Good housewife's Geese lay;
On Saint Valentine

Your Geese lay, and mine."

In three months, or at most four, from leaving the egg, the birds ought to be fit for the feather-bed, the spit, and the pie. It is better, either to eat them at this early stage as green Geese, or, to keep them another six months, till after they have moulted and renewed their feathers, when they can be fatted till they grow into the ponderous, satisfactory, succulent joint which suits a healthy Michaelmas or Christmas appetite. It will be found unprofitable to kill them between these two epochs of their life. They will be fatted by being shut up, in society, in a clean, quiet, outhouse, with plenty of dry straw, gravel, and fresh water, and are there to be supplied for a certain length of time, continued according to the weight desired to be laid on, with all the barley or oats they can eat. The kind of grain used depends upon custom or convenience, some advocating barley, others oats; a mixture might perhaps be the most effectual. Barley-meal and water is recommended by some feeders; but full-grown Geese that have not been habituated to the mixture when young, will occasionally refuse to eat it. Cooked potatoes in small quantities do no harm. A first-rate delicacy, though rather expensive, would be produced by following Penelope's system of feeding, and giving the birds steeped

wheat.

The Goose is not only very early in its laying, but also very late. It often anticipates the spring in November, and afterwards, when spring really comes in March, it cannot resist its genial influence. The autumnal eggs afford useful employment to Turkeys or Hens that choose to sit at unseasonable times: and the period of incubation, thirty days, is less tedious than that required for the eggs of China Geese or Musk Ducks. A dry, airy lean-to or shed, and the gleanings of a kitchen garden, are all that are needful to rear the young. Their great enemy will be the cramp, which may be kept off by making them sleep on dry straw, and turning them out with their mother for an hour or two every mild and open day. When winter Goslings are expected, a Michaelmas planting (not sowing) of lettuce and endive should be made; the latter will be found particularly serviceable, as also the tender parts of turnip tops. A living turf laid down in the outhouse and changed occasionally, will be relished. A little boiled rice daily assists their growth, with corn, of course, as soon as they can eat it. A rushlight burnt in a Goosehouse during the fifteen or sixteen hours of darkness in winter, has been successfully employed to induce the Goslings to eat. And when it is remembered that the candle costs the fraction of a penny, while an early green Goose is worth from seven shillings to half-a-guinea, it will be seen that the expense is not thrown away. Almost all breeders of Goslings administer, by cramming, long half-dried pellets composed of raw egg and wheat flour ; it is an old practice, but is unnecessary, except during mid-winter.

We

e give Columella's directions for rearing :

"And the Gosling, while he is very little, is shut up in a pen for the first ten days, and fed along with his mother: afterwards, when the fine weather permits, he is led forth into the meadows, and to the fish-ponds. care must be taken that he is neither stung by nettles, nor sent fasting to the pasture, but has his appetite satisfied beforehand with chopped endive or lettuce leaves.

And

For if he goes to pasture still weak and hungry, he tugs at the shrubs and more solid herbs so pertinaciously as to break his neck."-Columella, lib. viii., chap. xiv. The Roman school of poulterers were in great fear of nettles for their Goslings, and as a counter-irritative remedy, it was proposed to place nettle-roots under the sitting Geese; but one would say that the nettles, not the Goslings, had the greatest reason for alarm.

Geese are slaughtered by being bled from the internal parts of the throat,—a slow and cruel method. They, as well as Ducks, should be let out to the pond a few hours before execution, where they will purify and arrange their feathers as neatly as if they were going to their wedding instead of to their death. Adult birds are almost exempt from disease. When three-quarters grown, they occasionally, though not often, "go light," as the countrypeople call it, and waste and die like a person in a consumption. This usually happens only with birds that are shut up too closely to fat. The remedy is liberty and grass.

I have seen the shell of a Goose's egg that had contained three yolks.

The flight of the Domestic Goose is quite powerful enough, especially in young birds, to allow them to escape that way, were they so inclined. In the autumn whole broods may be seen by early risers, taking their morning flight, and circling in the air for matutinal exercise, just like pigeons when first let out of their locker.

THE BERNICLE GOOSE.

"Birds which the vulgar call Baumgänse, that is, Tree Geese, because they are said to be produced on trees, from the trunk and branches of which they hang. They say also that these creatures are sometimes generated in the sea, from decayed planks, particularly firwood. And this is altogether absurd."- Ortus Sanitatis.

"The Bernicle Goose, though an occasional visitor to Sutherland, is much more rare than the Brent Goose. The Brent Goose is more frequent on the east coast, while the Bernicle keeps to the western side of the county."-CHARLES ST. JOHN.

SEVERAL ornithological writers have lamented, with expressions of surprise, that so few of the larger water-birds have been domesticated, and made to afford us a ready supply of food, in return for their board and lodging. But it should be remembered that there are two parties to the proposed arrangement-the master and the slave. If the captive resolutely persists in saying, "You may bestow every care upon me, and lavish every comfort, but I will not be the parent of a race of slaves, although I may show a little personal thankfulness to yourself," the next move for us to make is to procure young that are ignorant of the fascinations of a wild life, and to endeavour to subdue, by kindness, their stubbon nature. If they remain indomitably independent, and refuse to yield, we are check-mated, and cannot proceed a step further. It is not in our power to increase the number of domesticable birds. "The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth," is a promise which will be undoubtedly fulfilled; and thus, as the