consecrated geese were kept in the temple of Juno, and were well lodged and fed, still swollen and diseased geese livers were in great request; and geese were plucked alive, for their feathers were of as much use as in the present day; those of the white birds being especially valuable. In some places the plucking occurred twice in the year. Great numbers of geese were at certain seasons annually driven to Rome, and, according to Pliny, some came from almost incredible distances. "It is astonishing (he says) that these birds will travel on foot from the Morini* even to Rome. The tired ones are put first, and the rest, by a natural crowding together, push them forward. The plumage of the white ones is an additional source of profit. They are plucked in some places twice a year, and soon recover their feathers. The down nearest the body is the softest, that from Germany the most esteemed. There the white ones, of inferior size, are called ganzæ, (modern German, gans, a goose; gaas, Danish; gas, Swedish; gander, English for the male.)† Their feathers fetch five denarii a pound."

*The Morini were a people of ancient Belgic Gaul, inhabiting the territory around modern Calais, the Pays de Calais.

The gander is usually white, and though longer in the body appears to be less bulky than the female.

In some parts of modern Italy, the goose is in little request for the table, though the system of plucking off its feathers while alive, is still continued.

In ancient Egypt, both the common and a distinct species, the Egyptian goose, or Vulpanser, (Chenalopex Egyptiacus,) were kept tame and reared in vast numbers, as frequent paintings and sculptured representations of these birds attest. Herodotus says, that the Chenalopex* was sacred in Egypt. But the author of Egyptian Antiquities, observing that it is of frequent occurrence on the sculptures, does not consider it to have been a sacred bird; "unless (he adds) it may have some claim to that honour from having been a favourite article of food for the priests." A place in Upper Egypt had its name Chenoboscion, or Chenoboscia, goose-pens, from these animals being fed there, probably for sale, though these may have been sacred geese; for we are told that the goose was a bird under the care of Isis.

The Chenalopex, or Egyptian goose, is abundant in a wild state, along the banks of the Nile, and is distributed over the whole of Africa;

*This word means fox-goose, a name given in allusion to the bird's cunning.

occasionally it visits the southern parts of the European continent, and is not unfrequent in Sicily. In England it is kept as an ornament to sheets of water in parks and pleasure grounds, where it breeds freely; hence it happens that half-wild individuals which have escaped from their inclosure, are occasionally, sometimes even frequently, shot, leading those not acquainted with the bird, to take it for a British species. Its colouring is very beautiful, and its pace on the ground far more easy and graceful than that of the common goose.

Two species of geese, besides the ordinary goose, are often seen domesticated in our island; these are the Canada goose, (anser Canadensis,) and the Chinese goose, (anser Cygnoïdes.) "The Canada goose is the ordinary wild goose of the middle and boreal regions of North America; and is a migratory bird, breeding in the higher latitudes, within the arctic circle; whence, on the approach of winter, vast flocks wing their way southwards, where every means for their destruction are in active operation. In the fur countries, their appearance on their northward return in the spring, is hailed with joy; for it is upon the flesh of this bird, that the natives of the woody and swampy

districts chiefly depend for their sustenance during the summer. About three weeks after their first appearance, the Canada geese disperse in pairs throughout the country, between the fiftieth and sixty-seventh parallels to breed, retiring at the same time from the shores of Hudson's Bay. They are seldom or never seen on the coasts of the arctic sea; in July, after the young birds are hatched, the parents moult, and vast numbers are killed in the rivers and small lakes, when they are unable to fly. When chased by a canoe, and obliged to dive frequently, they soon become fatigued, and make for the shore with the intention of hiding themselves, but as they are not fleet they fall an easy prey to their pursuers. In autumn they again

assemble in flocks on the shores of Hudson's Bay for three weeks or a month previous to their departure southward." In the territories of the Hudson's Bay Company, these birds are barrelled for use, and the feathers are imported into England. Those taken on the approach of the cold season, during their southward migration, in Canada, and within the states, are frozen in their feathers, and preserved for winter consumption.

Though the ordinary European tame goose is kept in North America, the Canada goose is also kept there as a domestic bird, and is said to thrive better than the former. In France and England it has also become domiciled, and interbreeds with the common goose; the hybrids are highly esteemed for the very superior flavour and delicacy of their flesh. Bewick observes that the Canada goose, now one of our domestic birds, "is as familiar, breeds as freely, and is in every respect as valuable as the common goose." It is said to be extremely watchful, and more sensible of approaching changes in the atmosphere than our ordinary species.

The Chinese goose or swan goose (anser Cygnoïdes) in its general form, the length of its neck, and the protuberance at the base of its beak, reminds us of the swan, and appears to take an intermediate station between the geese and swan tribes. It rather exceeds the ordinary goose in size, and freely breeds with it, so that the pure race is less frequently to be seen than formerly, at least the mixed breed has more frequently come under our notice. The Chinese goose is originally from China and other parts of Asia, and also from Africa.