This bird deserves some notice, as hardly any other anciently domesticated bird or quadruped has varied so little. That geese were anciently domesticated we know from certain verses in Homer; and from these birds having been kept (388 B.C.) in the Capitol at Rome as sacred to Juno, which sacredness implies great antiquity[455]. That the goose has varied in some degree, we may infer from naturalists not being unanimous with respect to its wild parent-form; though the difficulty is chiefly due to the existence of three or four closely allied wild European species[456]. A large majority of capable judges are convinced that our geese are descended from the wild Grey-lag goose (_A. ferus_); the young of which can easily be tamed,[457] and are domesticated by the Laplanders. This species, when crossed with the domestic goose, produced in the Zoological Gardens, as I was assured in {288} 1849, perfectly fertile offspring.[458] Yarrell[459] has observed that the lower part of the trachea of the domestic goose is sometimes flattened, and that a ring of white feathers sometimes surrounds the base of the beak. These characters seem at first good indications of a cross at some former period with the white-fronted goose (_A. albifrons_); but the white ring is variable in this latter species, and we must not overlook the law of analogous variation; that is, of one species assuming some of the characters of allied species. As the goose has proved so inflexible in its organization under long-continued domestication, the amount of variation which can be detected is worth giving. It has increased in size and in productiveness;[460] and varies from white to a dusky colour. Several observers[461] have stated that the gander is more frequently white than the goose, and that when old it almost invariably becomes white; but this is not the case with the parent-form, the _A. ferus_. Here, again, the law of analogous variation may have come into play, as the snow-white male of the Rock-Goose (_Bernicla antarctica_) standing on the sea-shore by his dusky partner is a sight well known to all those who have traversed the sounds of Tierra del Fuego and the Falkland Islands. Some geese have topknots; and the skull beneath, as before stated, is perforated. A sub-breed has lately been formed with the feathers reversed at the back of the head and neck.[462] The beak varies a little in size, and is of a yellower tint than in the wild species; but its colour and that of the legs are both slightly variable.[463] This latter fact deserves attention, because the colour of the legs and beak is highly serviceable in discriminating the several closely allied wild forms.[464] At our {289} Shows two breeds are exhibited; viz. the Embden and Toulouse; but they differ in nothing except colour.[465] Recently a smaller and singular variety has been imported from Sebastopol,[466] with the scapular feathers (as I hear from Mr. Tegetmeier,