Note 38 — First, Of Birds.[34]

“The geese of the country be of three sorts. First, a brant goose; which is a goose almost like the wild goose in England. The price of one of these is sixpence. The second kind is a white goose, almost as big as an English tame goose. These come in great flocks about Michaelmas: sometimes there will be two or three thousand in a flock. Those continue six weeks, and so fly to the southward; returning in March, and staying six weeks more, returning to the northward. The price of one of these is eightpence. The third kind of geese is a great grey goose, with a black neck, and a black and white head; strong of flight: and these be a great deal bigger than the ordinary geese of England; some very fat, and, in the spring, full of feathers, that the shot can scarce pierce them. Most of these geese remain with us from Michaelmas to April. They feed in the sea upon grass in the bays at low water, and gravel, and in the woods of acorns; having, as other fowl have, their pass and repass to the northward and southward. The accurate marksmen kill of these both flying and sitting. The price of a grey goose is eighteen-pence.”—Wood, N. E. Prospect, l. c. The white goose here mentioned is probably the snow-goose; upon which compare Nuttall, Mass. Ornith., Water-Birds, p. 344. Josselyn (Voyages, p. 100) says the brant and the gray goose “are best meat; the white are lean and tough, and live a long time; whereupon the proverb, ‘Older than a white goose:’” which is not supported by Wood or later writers. The snow-goose has become much less frequent with us since the settlement of the country. The great grey goose of Wood is our well-known Canada goose.