_Wild Goose._――The common wild goose is well known over the whole of the United States, and its periodical migrations are sure signs of returning spring or approaching winter. Its flight is heavy and laborious. When in good order this bird weighs from ten to fourteen pounds, and yields about half a pound of feathers. Mr. Wilson relates the following interesting anecdote. Illustration: Wild Geese. ‘Mr. Platt, a respectable farmer on Long Island, being out shooting in one of the bays which in that part of the country abound in water-fowl, wounded a wild goose. Being unable to fly, he caught it, and brought it home alive. It proved to be a female, and turning it into the yard with a flock of tame geese, it soon became quite familiar, and in a little time its wounded wing entirely healed. In the following spring, when the wild geese migrate to the northward, a flock passed over Mr. Platt’s barn yard, and just at that moment, their leader, happening to sound his bugle note, our goose, in whom its new habits had not quite extinguished the love of liberty, and remembering the well-known sound, spread its wings, mounted into the air, joined the travellers, and soon disappeared. In the succeeding autumn, the wild geese, as usual, returned from the northward, in great numbers, to pass the winter in our bays and rivers. Mr. Platt happened to be standing in his yard, when a flock passed directly over his barn. At that instant, he observed three geese detach themselves from the rest, and after wheeling round several times, alight in the middle of the yard. Imagine his surprise and pleasure, when, by certain well-remembered signs, he recognised in one of the three his long-lost fugitive. It was she indeed! She had travelled many hundred miles to the lakes; had there hatched and reared her offspring; and had now returned with her little family, to share with them the sweets of civilized life.’ _Wild Swan._――This bird is found widely spread over the whole of the northern continent. During the winter, great numbers of them resort to the Chesapeak bay, and whilst there, form collections of from one to five hundred on the flats near the western shore. These birds are so exceedingly vigilant, that if but three of them are feeding together, one will generally be on guard, and when danger approaches, the alarm is given. While feeding and dressing, they make much noise, and through the night their vociferations can be heard for several miles. Their notes are extremely varied; some resembling the deepest base of the common tin horn, others running through the various modulations of the clarionet. The swan is five or six years in reaching its perfect growth. The aborigines employ the skin of this bird in making dresses for their women of rank, and the feathers as ornaments for the head.[55] Illustration: Wild Swan.