A. Anser, Lin. Sr.c. Goose, Grey Lag Goose, or Wild Goose. The folded wings do not reach to the extremity of the tail, and the bill is robust and thick, and of an uni form colour. Inhabits the eastern and central parts of Europe.
Flocks of this species, consisting of from fifty to a hun dred individuals, are often seen flying at very great heights, and seldom resting by day ; and their cry may be fre quently heard when they are too elevated to be visible ; but they seldom exert their voice when they alight in their journeys. On the ground they always arrange themselves in a line; and they seem to descend rather for rest than refreshment ; for, after having continued in this manner for an hour or two, one of them, with a long loud note, sounds a kind of signal, to which the rest always punc tually attend, and, rising in a group, they prosecute their way with great alacrity. Their flight is conducted with great regularity, for they always proceed, either in a line a-breast, or in two lines, joining in an angle at the mid dle. In this order they generally take the lead by turns, the foremost falling back in the rear, when tired with cleaving the air, and the next in succession occupying its place. In these lofty flights they are seldom within reach of a fowling-piece ; and even when they move in a lower track, they file so equally, that one discharge rarely kills more than a single bird. Their principal food consists of aquatic vegetables, and most sorts of grain. They breed in heaths, or in plains and marshes, as formerly in the fenny districts of England, and in various other countries, the female nestling on tufts of cut rushes, or dry herbage, and usually laying from five to eight, and very rarely so many as twelve or fourteen dirty greenish eggs, which are hatched in twenty-eight or thirty days. In some years the young ones are taken in considerable numbers, and are then very easily tamed. The old birds, however, are extremely shy, and, possessing the senses of hearing and vision in a pre-eminent degree, frequently contrive to elude the approaches of their pursuers. During the day, they often take up their abode among fields of young corn, which they seriously injure, and in the evening they resort to some lake or river, and thus escape the wily researches of the fox, which has been sometimes known to visit them in broad day. Some instances occur of tame geese uniting with bands of the wild sort, to the great disappointment of the owners. The flesh of a middle-aged wild goose, in the spring of the year, when the bird is in full feather, is very tender and finely flavoured, and differs consi derably, both in taste and colour, from that of the tame variety. This species, in its unconstrained state, is widely and numerously diffused over various quarters of the northern world, whence some flocks of them migrate a great way southward in winter. According to Latham, they are general inhabitants of the globe, being met with from Lapland to the Cape of Good Hope, in Arabia, Persia, China, and Japan, on the American coasts, from Hudson's Bay to South Carolina, as also in the Straits of Magellan, the Falkland Islands, Terra del Fuego, and New Holland.
The domestic breed of this species, owing to regular and copious feeding, and habits of comparative listless ness, acquire more ample dimensions and greater plump ness than those which retain their freedom and roam at large. Artificial, and very often cruel methods, are also resorted to, in order to fatten them for the table, and to enlarge their livers, so that, in the course of three weeks or a month, one of these crammed and tortured victims to sensuality, when on the point of dying of suffocation, will weigh eighteen or twenty pounds. In Upper Languedoc, there is a race of tame geese, much larger than ordinary, and characterized by a mass of fat which depends from their belly, so as almost to touch the ground when they walk. A certain family, near Highworth, in Wiltshire, were, a good many years ago, in possession of a peculiar breed of geese, which they nursed and fattened in such a manner, that they attained to a very extraordinary, and almost incredible size, insomuch that some of them would weigh from twenty even to thirty pounds. The owners could scarcely be induced, on any consideration, to part with an egg of this breed ; and they sold the yearly pro duce of the flock to a few opulent families in the neigh bourhood, at the rate of a shilling the pound. As an im
portant department of the poultry establishment, the goose, we need hardly observe, is cultivated in almost every civi lized quarter of the world, and, when under proper ma nagement, forms a profitable article of the farmer's pro duce, its quills, down, flesh, and even dung, being all turned to account. In this island, these birds are no where kept in greater quantities than in the fens of Lin colnshire, several persons there having as many as a thou sand breeders. They are stripped once a-year for their quills, and no fewer than five times for the feathers. The first plucking for both commences about Lady-day ; and the other four are between that and Michaelmas. It is alleged that, in general, the birds do not materially suf fer from these operations, except cold weather happens to set in, when numbers of them die. The old ones submit quietly to be plucked, but the young ones are very noisy and unruly. These geese breed, in general, only once a-year, but, if well kept, sometimes twice. During their sitting, each has a space allotted to it, in rows of wicker pens, placed one above another, and the gozzard (,rowie herd) who drives them to water twice a-day, and brings them back to their habitations, is said to place every bird in its own nest. The numbers of geese that are driven from the distant counties to London for sale, are scarcely credible ; for a single drove frequently consists of two or three thousand. In ancient times they appear to have been conducted much in the same manner from the in terior of Gaul to Rome. Each driver is provided with a long stick, at one end of which a 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 for ward, and with the latter, such as attempt to stray are caught by the neck, and kept in order. Such as arc lame are put into a hospital cart, which usually follows each large drove. Their progress is at the rate of eight or ten miles a-day, reckoning from three in the morning till nine at night. Those which become fatigued are led with oats, and the rest with simple or awkward the goose may appear, it is by no means destitute of either sagacity m. affection ; and some singular in stances are recorded of its attachment to animals of ano ther class, and even to persons. The young, or green geese, as they are called, destined for the table, should be put into a place that is almost dark, and fed with ground malt, mixed with milk, when they will, very soon, and at very little expence, be fit to be killed. Should milk prove scarce, barley meal may be mixed, pretty thick, with water, which they may constantly have by them to eat as they choose, and in another part of the shed, some boiled oats and water kept in a pan, to which they may resort when inclined to change their food. This variety is agreeable to them, and they thrive apace. With re spect to Michaelmas or stubble geese, they should, imme diately after harvest, be turned out on the wheat eddishes, where they pick up very fast ; but, when taken up to be fattened, they should be fed with ground malt, mixed with water, or boiled barley and water ; and thus treated, they grow fatter than they would at first be imagined, and ac quire a more delicate flavour than those in the London market. Old breeders may be plucked thrice a-year, and at an interval of seven weeks, without inconvenience ; but young ones, before they are subjected to this operation, must have attained to the age of thirteen or fourteen weeks, otherwise they will pine, and lose their good qualities. It is scarcely necessary to add, that the par ticular nature of the food, and the care that is taken of the birds, materially contribute to the value of the feathers and the down. In the neighbourhood of plenty of water, they are not so subject as elsewhere to the annoyance of vermin ; and they furnish feathers of a superior quality. In regard to down, there is a certain stage of maturity, which may be easily discovered, as it is then readily de tached, whereas, it removed too soon, it will not keep, and is liable to be attacked by insects and their larv?. Again, the feathers ought never to be plucked long after the birds are dead, and, at the latest, before they are quite cold, else they will contract a bad smell and get matted.