“The farmer’s Goose, who in the stubble
Has fed without restraint or trouble,
Grown fat with corn, and sitting still,
Can scarce get o’er the barn-door sill;
And hardly waddles forth to cool
Her body in the neighbouring pool;
Nor loudly cackles at the door,
For cackling shows the Goose is poor.”
Swift.
The Goose is very different in outward appearance from the last-named bird. Stupidity in her look, uncouthness in her walk, and heaviness in her flight are her principal characteristics. But why should we dwell upon these defects? they are not such in the great scale of the creation. Her flesh feeds many, and is not disdained even by the great; her feathers keep us warm; and even the very pen I hold in my hand was plucked from her wing.
These birds are kept in vast quantities in the fens of Lincolnshire; several persons there having as many as a thousand breeders. They breed in general only once a year, but if well kept they sometimes hatch twice in a season. During their sitting, the birds have spaces allotted to each, in rows of wicker pens placed one above another; and the Goose-herd, who has the care of them, drives the whole flock to water twice a day, and bringing them back to their habitations, places every bird (without missing one) in its own nest. It is scarcely credible what numbers of Geese are driven from the distant counties to London for sale, frequently two or three thousand in a drove; and, in the year 1783, one drove passed through Chelmsford, in its way from Suffolk to London, that contained more than nine thousand. However simple in appearance or awkward in gesture the Goose may be, it is not without many marks of sentiment and understanding. The courage with which it protects its offspring and defends itself against ravenous birds, and certain instances of attachment, and even of gratitude, which have been observed in it, render our general contempt of the Goose ill-founded.
The Goose was held in great veneration among the Romans, as having by her watchfulness saved the Capitol from the attack of the Gauls. Virgil says, in the seventh book of the Æneid,
“The silver goose before the shining gate
There flew, and by her cackle saved the state.”
Dryden.
The colour of this useful bird is generally white; though we often find them of a mixture of white, grey, black, and sometimes yellow. The feet which are palmated, are orange-coloured, and the beak is serrated. The male of the Goose is called the Gander; and the young ones Goslings. Geese are very long-lived, one is known to have lived above seventy years.
The Wild Goose is the original of the tame one, and differs much in colour from her, the general tint of its feathers being a greyish black. Wild Geese fly by night in large flocks to more southern countries; and their clang is heard from the regions of the clouds, although the birds are out of sight.
