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parents. The Goose, on leaving her nest to feed, covers her eggs carefully. Any difficulty in rearing them results from want of proper management. If, for instance, when the bird does at length sit, she is insufficiently supplied with eggs, or with those which have been kept too long; or if she be permitted to be disturbed by dogs, &c. ; if she be suffered to steal a nest, and sit on more than she can cover things will go wrong. The great number of eggs laid may perhaps cause an uncertainty that each one is properly fecundated. A China Goose, after sitting a fortnight, was driven from her nest by a sow that had been permitted to get loose: the eggs were eaten, shells and all, and the poor bird expressed her agony of mind, both by her cries and actions. After she became a little calm, her nest was remade and supplied with fresh eggs. She continued to sit for three weeks longer, as well as could be. At the end of the usual period of five weeks, she gave up her task as useless, believing the eggs to be addled, which they were not; and we unfortunately knew no language by which we could persuade her that, if she would only persevere for another fortnight, the reproach of barrenness would be taken away from her.

These are annoying cases to practical ornithotrophists. But even here the difficulty need not have been insurmountable; and where there's a will there's a way. A worthy old couple had the misfortune to have their sitting Goose killed in one of her daily promenades, a few days before the goslings were ready to leave the shell. What was to be done? The eggs were cooling fast; no time was to be lost. Difficult emergencies excite brilliant efforts of genius. In an instant the old man was undressed and in bed. To him the orphan eggs were transferred. When he grew tired of his lying in, the old lady took her turn till the goslings were safely

hatched.

The prevailing colour of the plumage of the China Goose is a brown, which has aptly been compared to the

colour of wheat. The different shades are very harmoniously blended, and are well relieved by the black tuberculated bill, and the pure white of the abdomen. Their movements on the water are graceful and swanlike. It is delightful to see them on a fine day in spring lashing the water, diving, rolling over through mere fun, and playing all sorts of antics. Slight variations occur in the colour of the feet and legs, some having them of a dull orange, others black: a delicate fringe of minute white feathers is occasionally seen at the base of the bill. These peculiarities are hereditarily transmitted, but do not amount to more than mere varieties. But the White China Goose, if it be not specifically distinct, is a variety so decidedly marked as to demand a separate notice.

The male is almost as much disproportionately larger than the female as the Musk-Drake is in comparison with his mate. He is much inclined to libertine wanderings, without, however, neglecting to pay proper attention at home. If there is any other gander on the same premises, they are sure to disagree: one of the two had better be got rid of. Both male and female are, perhaps, the most noisy of all Geese: at night the least footfall or motion in their neighbourhood is sufficient to call forth their clanging and resonant trumpetings. This, to a lone country house, is an advantage and a protection. Any fowl-stealer would be stunned with their din before he captured them alive, and the family must be deaf indeed that could sleep on through the alarm thus given. But by day it becomes a nuisance to the majority of hearers, and has caused them to be relinquished by many amateurs. One is inclined to address them as O'Connell did the uproarious fellow who was interrupting his speech, "I wish you had a hot potato in your mouth." Or they might take a lesson from Ælian's Geese :-Oi dè xîves διαμείβοντες τὸν Ταῦρον τὸ ὄρος δεδοίκασι τοὺς ἀετοὺς, καὶ ἕκαστός γε ἀυτῶν λίθον ἐνδακόντες, ἵνα μὴ κλάζωσιν, ὡσπεροῦν ἑμβαλόντες σφίσι στόμιον, διαπέτονται σιωπώντες, καὶ τοὺς

ἀετοὺς τὰ πολλὰ ταύτῃ διαλανθάνουσι.—Book V. Chap. 29. "The Geese, when shifting about Mount Taurus, are afraid of the Eagles, and each one of them taking a stone in its mouth, that they may not cry out, as if putting a gag upon themselves, fly through their course in silence, and in this manner generally quite escape the notice of the Eagles." We, however, prefer that our Geese should silence themselves with grass and corn.

The eggs of the China Goose are somewhat less than those of the domestic kind, of a short oval, with a smooth thick shell, white, but slightly tinged with yellow at the smaller end. The goslings when first hatched are usually very strong. They are of a dirty green, like the colour produced by mixing Indian ink and yellow ochre, with darker patches here and there. The legs and feet are lead colour, but afterwards change to a dull red. If there is anything like good pasturage for them they require no further attention than what their parents will afford them. After a time a little grain will strengthen and forward them. If well fed they come to maturity very rapidly. In between three and four months from the time of their leaving the shell, they will be full grown and ready for the spit. They do not bear being shut up to fatten so well as common Geese, and therefore those destined for the table are the better for profuse hand-feeding. flesh is well-flavoured, short, and tender; their eggs are excellent for cooking purposes. I have heard complaints of their being a short-lived species, from good authority, and that the ganders at least do not last more than ten or a dozen years. I cannot verify the fact, as my own experience with these birds extends only to about six years, but it is quite in opposition to the longevity ascribed to other Geese. Hybrids between them and the common Goose are prolific; the second and third cross is much prized by some farmers, particularly for their ganders: and in many flocks the blood of the China Goose may often be traced by the more erect gait of the birds, accompanied by a faint stripe down the back of the

Their

neck. With the White-fronted Goose they also breed freely.

In the very clear and useful" Manual of British Vertebrate Animals," by the Rev. Leonard Jenyns, this bird is recorded as Cygnus Guineensis, or Guinea Swan, another synonyme; though it is hesitatingly added, "Native country somewhat doubtful.”

THE WHITE-FRONTED, OR LAUGHING

GOOSE.

ORNAMENTAL Poultry may be divided into three classes, not with reference to their beauty or their natural arrangement, but in respect of their capabilities for domestication. The first class comprises those that are really domestic (if we derive the word from domus, a house), that unhesitatingly confide themselves to the protection of Man, and may be trusted with their complete liberty, in the certainty that they will prefer the shelter of his roof, at proper times and seasons, to a state of nature. This would include Cocks and Hens, some Pigeons, Turkeys, the Common Domestic, and the China Geese, the Musk Duck, and a few others.

The second class includes those birds which are restrained from resuming their original wild habits, more by the influence of local and personal attachment, than from any love they seem to have for the comforts of domestication; which may be trusted with their entire liberty, or nearly so, but require an eye to be kept on them from time to time, lest they stray away and assume an independent condition. In this class we have the Pea-fowl, the White-fronted Goose, the Wigeon, the Canada Goose, the Egyptian Goose, and others, including perhaps the Common Duck.

The third class embraces all those birds which, however familiar they may become, so as even to eat from the hand of their keeper, are yet in their hearts as untameable as a fly; and must, therefore, be kept in complete, though to many eyes invisible restraint, lest they withdraw themselves completely from all human control; and whose taste for domestication does not seem to increase, though many successive generations of them have been bred in captivity. In this class we have the Swan, the

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