Anas

Anas olor, or mute swan. The plu mage of this species is of the same snowy whiteness as that of the wild swan, and the bird is covered next the body with the same kind of fine close down ; but it greatly exceeds the wild swan in size, weighing about twenty-five pounds, and measuringmore in the length of the body and extent of the wings. This also dif fers, in being furnished with a projecting, callous, black, tubercle, or knob, on the base of the upper mandible, and in the colour of the bill, which in this is red, with black edges and tip ; the naked skin between the bill and the eyes is also of the latter colour: in the wild swan this bare space is yellow. The swan, although possessed of the power to rule, yet mo lests none of the other water-birds, and is singularly social and attentive to those of his own family, which he protects from every insult. While they are employed with the cares of the young brood, it is not safe to approach near them, for they will fly upon any stranger, whom they often beat to the ground by repeated blows ; and they have been known by a stroke of the wing to break a man's leg. But, however powerful they are withtheir wings, yet a slight blow on the head will kill them. The swan, for ages past, has been protected on the river Thames, Eng land, as royal property ; and it continues at this day to be accounted felony to steal their eggs. "By -this means their in crease is secured, and they prove a de lightful ornament to that noble river." Latham says, "in the reign of Edward IV. the estimation they were held in was such, that no one who possessed a free hold of less than the clear yearly value of five marks was permitted even to keep any." In those times,hardly apiece of water was left unoccupied by these birds, as well on account of the gratifica tion they gave to the eye of their lordly owners, as that which they also afforded when they graced the sumptuous board, at the splendid feasts of that period : but the fashion of those days is passed away, and swans are not nearly so common now as they were formerly, being by most peo ple accounted a coarse kind of food, and consequently held in little estimation; but the cy-gnets (so the young swans are called) are still fattened for the table, and are sold very high, commonly for a gui nea each, and sometimes for more : hence it may be presumed, they are better food than is generally imagined. This species istaid to be found in great numbers in Russia and Siberia, as well as further southward, in a wild state. They are, without an owner, common on the river Trent, and on the salt-water inlet of the sea near Abbotsbury, in Dorsetshire : they are also met on other rivers and lakes in different parts of the British isles. The female makes her nest, concealed among the rough herbage, near the Neater's edge : she lays from six to eight large white eggs, and sits on them about six weeks (some say eight weeks) before they are hatched. The young do not acquire their full plumage till the second year. It is found by experience that the swan will not thrive, if kept out of the water : con fined in a cotut yard, he makes an awk ward figure, and soon becomes dirty, taw dry, dull, and spiritless.

Anas Canadensis, or Canada goose, is another useful species, which has been reclaimed from a state of nature, and do mesticated and multiplied in many parts of Europe, particularly in France and Germany; and it is not very uncommon in England. It is as familiar, breeds as freely, and is in every respect as valuable as the common goose : it is also account ed a great ornament on ponds near gen tlemen's seats. Mr. Pennant, in his Arc tic Zoology, give s th e followin g i nte resting account of the mode of taking the Canada goose in Hudson's bay : " The English of Hudson's hay depend greatly on geese, of these and other kinds,for theirsupport; and, in favourable years, kill three or four thousand, which they salt and barrel. Their anival is impatiently attended; it is the harbinger of the spring-, and the month named by the Indians the Goose Moon. They appear usually at our set tlements in numbers, about St. George's Day; O. S., and fty northward to nestle in security. They prefer islands to the con tinents, as further from the haunts of men. Thus, Marble Island was found, in Au gust, to swarm with swans, geese, and ducks; the old ones moulting, and tIn young at that time incapable of flying." "The English send out their servants, as well as Indians, to shoot these birds on their passage. It is in vain topursue them ; they therefore form a row of huts made of bows, at musket-shot distance from each other, and place them in aline acrosk: the vast marshes of the countsy. Each hovel, or, as they are called, stand, is oc cupied by only a single person. These attend the flight of the birds, and, on their approach, mimic their cackle so well, that the geese will answer, and wheel and come nearer the stand. The sportsman keeps motionless, and on his knees, with his gun cocked, the whole tiine, and ne ver fires till he has seen the eyes of the geese. He fires as they are going fron: him, then picks up another gun that lies by him, and discharges that. The geese which he has killed he sets up on stick% as if alive, to decoy others; he also makes artificial birds for the same purpose. In a good day (for they fly in very uncertain and unequal numbers) a single Indian will kill two hundred. Notwithstanding CVCry species of goose has a different call, yet the Indians are admirable in their imita tion of every one."—" The vernal flight ot' the geese lasts from the middle of April until the middle of May. Their first ap pearance coincides with the thawing ot the swamps, when they are very- lean. The autumnal, or the season of their re turn with their young, is from the middle of August to the middle of October. Those which are taken in this latter sea son, when the frosts usually begin, are presers-ed in their feathers, and left to be frozen, for the fresh provisions of the Win. ter stock. The feathers constitute at: article of commerce, and are sent into England." 'This is the common wild goose of the United States ; cinereous : head and neck black- ; cheeks and chin white, also the vent and tail-coverts : it is often tamed, and will breed with the common goose, producing a larger off spring Anas Anser, or tame goose. To de. scribe the varied plumage and the econo my of this well known and valuable do mestic fowl, may- seem to many a need less task ; but to others, unacquainted vvith *rat affairs, it may be interesting. Their predominant colours are white and grey, with shades of ash, blue, and b ro*n : some of them are yellowish, others dusky, and many are found to differ very little in appearance from the wild kind last de scribed—the original stock, whence, in early times, they were all derived. The only permanent mark, which all the grey ones still retain, like those of the wild kind, is the white ring which surrounds the root of the tail. They are generally furnished with a small tuft on the head, and the tnost usual colour of the males (gander or stig) is pure white : the bills and feet in both males and females are of au orange red. By studied attention in the breeding, two sorts of these geese have been obtained : the less are by many esteetned as being more delicate eating : the larger atre by others preferred, on ac connt of the bountiful appearance they make upon the festhe board. The ave rage weight of the latter kind is between nine and fifteen pounds ; but instances are not wanting, where they hare been fed to upwards of twenty pounds ; this is, however, to sacrifice the flavour of the food to the size and appearance of the bird,for they become disgustingly fat and surfeiting, and the methods used to cram them up are unnatural and cruel. It is

'lot, however, altogether on account of their use as food that they- are valuable ; their feathers, their down, and their quills, have long been considered as articles of more importance, and from which their owners reap more advantages. In this respect the poor creatures have not been spared: urged by avarice, their inhuman masters appear to have ascertained the ex act quantity- of plumage of which they can bear to be robbed, withoutbeingdeprived of life. Mr. Petulant, in describing the methods used in Li ncol nshi re, in breeding-, rearing, and plucking geese, says, "they are plucked five times in the year; first at Lady-day for the feathers and quills : this business is renewed, fin the feathers only, four times more between that and Michaelmas." he adds, that he saw the operation pet-formed even upon goslings of six weeks old, from which the feathers of the tails were plucked; and that num; hers of the geese die when the season af terwards proves cold. But this unfeeling greedy business is not peculiar to one country, for much the same is practised in others. The care and attention bestow ed upon the brood geese, while they are engaged in the business of incubation, in the month of April, is nearly the same every where ; wicker pens are provided for them, placed in rows, and tier above tier, not uncommonly under the same roof as their owner. Some place water and corn near the nests ; others drive them to the ws.ter mice a day, and replace each female upon her own nest as soon'as she returns. This business requires the attendance of the gozzard (goose-herd) a month at least, in which time the young are brought forth: as soon afterwards as the binod are able to waddle along, they are, together with their dams, driven to the contiguous loughs and fens, or marsh es, on whose grassy margined pools they feed and thrive, without requiring any further attendance until the autumn. To these marshes, which otherwise would be unoccupied, (exceiit by wild birds,) and be only useless watery wastes, we are principally indebted for so g-reat a supply of the goose ; for in almost every country, where lakes and marshes abound, the neighbouring inhabitants keep as many as suit their convenience ; and in this way immense numbers annually attain to full growth and perfection; but in no part of the world are such numbers reared, as in the fens of Lincolnshire, where it is said to be no uncommon thing for a single per son to keep a thousand old geese, each of which, on an average, will bring np seven young ones. So far those only are no ticed which may properly be called the larger flocks, by which particular watery districts are peopled; and, although their aggregate numbers are great, yet they form only a part of the large family: those of the farm-yard, taken separately, appear as small specks on a great map ; but when they are gathered together, and. added to those kept by almost every- cot tager throug-hout the -kingdom, the im mense whole will appear multiplied in a ratio almost incalculable. A great part of those which are left to provide for them serves during the summer, in the solitary distant waters, as well as those which en liven the village green, are put into the stubble fields after harvest,to fatten upon the scattered grain : and some are penned up for this purpose, by which they attain to greater bulk ; and it is hardly necessa ry to observe, that they are then poured in weekly upon the tables of the luxurious citizens of every town in the king-dom. But these distant and divided supplies seem trifling, when compared with the multitudes, which, in the season, are driv en in all directions, into the metropolis ; the former appear only like the scanty waterings of the petty streamlet ; the lat ter like the copious overflowing, torrent of a large river. To the country market towns they are carried in bags and pan niers; to the great centre of trade they are sent in droves of manythousands, To a stranger it is a most curious spectacle to view these hissing, cackling, gabbling, but peaceful armies, with grave deportment, waddling- along, (like other armies) to cer tain destruction. The drivers are each pro vided with a long stick, at one end of which x red rag is tied as a lash, and a hook is fixed at the other : with the former, of which the geese seem much afraid, they are excited forward ; and with the latter, such as attempt to stray are caught by the neck and kept in order; or if lame, they arc put into an hospital-cart, which usually follows each large drove. In this manner they perform their jotu-nies from distant parts, and are said to get forward at the rate of eight or ten miles in a day, from three in the morning till nine at night : those which become fatigued are fed with oats, and the rest with barley. The tame goose lays from seven to twelve eggs, and sometimes more : these the care ful housewife divides equally among her brood geese, when they begin to sit. Those of her geese which lay a second time in the course of the summer, are sel dom, if ever, permitted to have a second hatching; but the eggs arc used for house hold purposes. In some countries the do mestic geese require much less care and attendance than those of this country. The goose has formanvages been celebrated on account of its vig;lance. The story of the saving Rome by the alarm they gave, wIten the Gauls were attempting the Capitol, is well known, and was probably- the first time of their watchfulness being recorded, and, on that account, they were afterv. ards held in the highest estimation by the Ro man people. It is certain that nothing can stir in the night, nor the least or moat distant noise be made, but the geese are roused, and immediately- begin to hold their cackling converse; and on the near er approach of apprehended danger,they set up their more shrill and clamorous cries. It is on account of this property that they are esteemed by many persons in length, and nearly fonr and a half in breadth. The bill, from the tip to the corners of the mouth, is scarcely an inch and a half long, black, and crossed with a pale reddish streak on each side : a nar row black line passes fi-om the bill to the eyes, the irides of which are brown : the head is small, and as far as the crown, together with the cheeks and throat, white : the rest of the head and neck, to the breast and shoulders, is black. The upper part of the plumage is prettily mar bled or barred with blue-grey, black, and white : the feathers of the back are black, edged with white, and those of the wing coverts and scapulars blue-grey-, border ed with black near their margins, and edged with white : the quills black, edged a little Way from the tips with blue-g,-rey: the under parts and tail coverts white : the thighs are marked with dusky lines or spots, and are black near the knees ; the tail is black, and five inches and a half long: the legs and feet dusky, very-thick and short, and have a stumpy appearance. In severe winters, these birds are not un common in England, particularly in the northern and western p.arts, where, how ever, they remain only a short time, but depart early in the spring to their northern wilds, to breed and spend the stunmer.