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forming, and that they are quite as likely to pair, and rear young, with individuals of a race apparently the most alien to themselves as with their own stock. Indeed, amongst Geese it will be difficult to define the limits of species, at least if the fertility or infertility of hybrids be the test.

But the supposition that all our domesticated creatures must necessarily have an existing wild original, is a mere assumption; and it has misled, and is likely to mislead, investigators as far from the truth as did the old notion about fossil organic remains, that they were Lithoschemata, as Aldrovandus has it, sketches in stone, abortive efforts of Nature, imperfect embryos, instead of fragmentary ruins of a former state of things. Some naturalists seem already to have had misgivings that such a theory respecting domestic animals is not tenable. According to the Rev. L. Jenyns.

"The Domestic Goose is usually considered as having been derived from the Grey-legged Goose, but such a circumstance is rendered highly improbable from the wellknown fact that the Common Gander, after attaining a certain age, is invariably (?) white. Montagu, also, observes that a specimen of the Anser ferus, which was shot in the wing by a farmer in Wiltshire, and kept alive many years, would never associate with the tame Geese. In fact the origin of this last is unknown."-Jenyns's Manual of Vertebrate Animals, p. 222. The origin of the Domestic Goose is indeed unknown if we look to Man, or his influence, to have originated so valuable and peculiar a species; but not unknown if we believe it to have been created by the same Almighty Power who animated the Mammoth, the Plesiosaurus, the Dinornis, and the Dodo. For let us grant that the Grey-legged Goose is the most probable existing parent of the domestic sort. Now, even that is becoming a rare bird; and the more scarce a creature is in a wild state, the scarcer it is likely still to become. Suppose the Grey-legged Goose extinct; by no means an impossibility. Then those who

must have a wild original from which to derive all our domestic animals would be compelled to fall back on some other species still less probable. It is surely a simpler theory to suppose that creatures that were cotemporary with the Mammoth, have, like it, disappeared from the earth in their wild state, but have survived as dependents on Man, than to engage in attempts at reconciling incongruities and discrepancies, which after all cannot satisfy the mind, but leave it in as doubtful a state

as ever.

Still less is the White-fronted the ancestor of the Domestic Goose. Entirely white specimens of the Albifrons are indeed occasionally hatched in confinement, and the Common Goose may now and then exhibit traces of an admixture or dash of blood with it, as it certainly does occasionally, of a cross with the China Goose (Cycnoides); but these are mere impurities which wear out, and the race returns to the well-known domestic type. And it will be allowed by most persons who have possessed a variety of these birds, and who have watched and tended them day by day, that the Domestic Goose is sufficiently separated from the Grey-legged by the colour of its feet and legs; from the White-fronted by the extreme difference of its voice, manner, time of incubation, colour of the eyes, "greater thickness of neck, convexity of profile, and many other little particulars that are more easily perceived than described.

It

It might be urged, as a further essential difference, that the Domestic Goose is polygamous, whereas all Wild Geese that we are acquainted with are monogamous. is true that Wild Geese in captivity will couple with the females of other species, but that takes place by their utterly neglecting their own mate for the time, not by entertaining two or more mistresses at once. It will be replied, that habits of polygamy are the effects of domestication; but what proof have we of such an assertion? Domestication has not yet induced the Pigeon and the Guinea-fowl to consort with more than one partner, and

the Swan, called Domestic by some writers, remains obstinately and even fiercely faithful in its attachments.

Of the Domestic Goose there really is but one variety, individuals of which are found varying from entirely white plumage, through different degrees of patchedness with grey, to entirely grey colouring. The Ganders are generally, not invariably white. Such are sometimes called Embden Geese, from a town of Hanover, famous also for groats. Fine white Geese may doubtless be hatched at Embden, as well as in Middlesex, and if actually imported may claim the name of their native place, but cannot on that account be allowed to form themselves into a separate clan. High feeding, care, and moderate warmth, will induce a habit of prolificacy, which becomes in some measure hereditary. The season of the year at which the young are hatched, (and in England they may be reared at any season,) influences their future size and development. After allowing for these causes of diversity, it will be found that the Domestic Goose constitutes only one species or permanent variety.

Their value and usefulness is scarcely calculable. We omit what is owing to them, as having furnished the most powerful instrument wielded by the hand of Man. But in a mere material point of view, and reckoning on the very smallest scale, we will suppose that a village green supports only fifty brood Geese. The owners of these would be dissatisfied if they got but ten young ones from each in the year, besides eggs; this gives 500 Geese per annum, without taking the chance of a second brood. Multiply 500 by the number of village greens in the kingdom, and we still form a very inadequate estimate of the importance of the bird. And all this with scarcely any outlay. The little trouble they demand of being secured at night and let out in the morning, of setting the Geese, and "pegging the Goslings, is a source of amusement and interest to thousands of aged and infirm persons, in whose affections their Geese stand second only to their children and relations. What a pity it is that such

cheerful commons should be ever converted into barren thickets and damp Pheasant covers, to afford a school for young sportsmen and rural policemen to practise their several arts in.

The only damage they do, lies in the quantity of food they consume; the only care they require, is to be saved from thieves and starvation. All the fears and anxieties requisite to educate the Turkey and prepare it for making a proper appearance at table, are with them unnecessary; grass by day, a dry bed at night, and a tolerably attentive mother, being all that is required. Roast Goose, fatted, of course, to the point of repletion, is almost the only luxury that is not thought an extravagance in an economical 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,

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