I

supposing that animals were originally created as we
now see them, and that any apparent gaps in the chain
or network are caused by the extinction of certain
races, not by the uprising of new forms into existence,
since the creation of man, at least. Besides, we have
records of modern exterminations successively going
on, from the Christian era to the present day. No
undisputed record, however, is to be found of the sud-
den emergency into life of a new tribe of creatures.
Foreign introductions there have been, but nothing
more, that there is any affirmative evidence to
prove.
am conscious that I may be contradicted by such in-
stances as the New-Leicester sheep, and the very re-
markable rabbits that are now kept in a state of
domestication; but Mr. Bakewell is asserted to have
studiously concealed and destroyed every trace of the
means by which he established his breed," and the
secrets of the "rabbit fancy” are as likely to be made
available to the elucidation of natural history, as are
the Eleusinian Mysteries. But so long as our com-
mercial relations continue as widely extended as they
are at present, the sudden and unexplained appear-
ance of any living novelty in Europe or in this country,
is by no means of necessity its first appearance on any
stage. It may be as old as the hills-not a sudden
drop from the clouds in these latter days, nor recently
compounded, like Frankenstein's monster, from the
members of defunct creatures, not yet electrified into
life in a pickle jar, like Mr. Cross' mites. Milton's
noble lines, though true at the Creation, are no longer
applicable-

"Meanwhile, the tepid caves, and fens, and shores,
Bursting with kindly rupture, forth disclosed

Their callow young; but feathered soon and fledge,

They summed their pens; and, soaring the air sublime,

With clang despised the ground. ** And straight the earth,

Opening her fertile womb, teemed at a birth

Numerous living creatures, perfect forms

Limbed and full-grown; out of the ground up rose,

As from his lair, the wild beast where he wons

In forest wild, in thicket, brake, or den.'

If such views be correct, it will follow that those

who are searching for the wild originals of many of

our domestic animals, are altogether pursuing a wrong scent. They might just as well search for the wild original of the Mammoth or the Dodo. It is an assumption, unsupported by any proof, to fix upon the wild creature that nearest resembles any given tame one, and say, "Here is the wild original; the dif ferences which we see, have been produced by time and domestication ;" or, if there is nothing wild coming within a moderate approach to it, to say, as of the common goose, "it is a combination of three or four other species." This is surely not philosophical reasoning; it is a begging of the question which would not be admitted in the exact sciences. What a daring leap at a conclusion it is, to get from the Asiatic argali, the American argali, or the Corsican mouflon, any or all of them, to the sheep, at a single vault! Such ratiocination is like the knight's move on the chess board, hither and thither, but never straight forward. Nor has the wide gulf between cocks and hens and the jungle fowls been as yet bridged over by any isthmus to me visible. The principle here sought to be indicated as a guide for future research is, that existing varieties and species which cannot be exactly identified in a wild state, are, in all probability, the remains of extinct races, the fragments of a ruin, and not newly-raised "seedlings," the modern sports and freaks of Nature.

And now to the white, China goose, about whose lineage, the reader, it is hoped, by this time, is interested. It was brought into notice, a few years since, by Mr. Alfred Whitaker, of Beckington, in Somerset, England, who speaks of it in the following words: : "The white, China goose is of a spotless, pure whitemore swan-like than the brown variety, with a bright orange-colored bill, and a large orange-colored knob at its base. It is a particularly beautiful bird, either in or out of the water, its neck being long, slender, and gracefully arched when swimming. It breeds three or four times in a season, but I was not successfnl

with them, owing, as I fancied, to my having no water for them, except a rapid running stream. A quiet lake, I believe to be more to their taste, and more conducive to the fecundity of the eggs. I believe my birds are still in the neighborhood, as I lent them to a farmer to try his luck with them. The egg is quite small for the size of the bird, being not more than half the size of that of the common goose. This bird deserves to rank in the first class of ornamental poultry, and would be very prolific under favorable circumstances. You will see both varieties of brown and white, China geese on the water in St. James's Park. My geese were from imported parents, and were hatched on board ship from China."

These geese, it is stated, formerly existed in the aviaries of the London Zoological Society, and were there considered in the light of a variety of the Anser cygnöides; but the head keeper of that establishment speaks most decidedly of his experience of the permanence, not only of this variety, but also of that of the dark-legged sorts of the brown kind, thus indicating three races, which, I repeat, would be considered as species were they now discovered for the first time.

Mr. Dixon, in speaking of these birds, says, "They are larger than the brown, China geese, apparently more terrestrial in their habits; the knob on the head is not only of greater proportions, but of a different shape. If they were only what is commonly meant by a variety of the dark sort, it is a question whether the bill would not retain its original jetty black, whatever change occurred to the feet and legs, instead of assuming a brilliant orange hue. If the bird were an albino, the bill would be flesh-colored, and the eyes would be pink, not blue."

Mr. Knight, of Frome, England, in whose possession they had been for three years, states that he has been unable to obtain any young from the eggs of the goose, but if he supplies her with eggs of the common goose, she invariably hatches and rears the goslings. Separ

ate trials of each of the pair with the common goose and gander have been made by him unsuccessfully, although the white, China goose lays four times in the year. Another gentleman, who also had a pair of the same lot, from China, says, "I had one good brood from the young pair which I kept, but since that, they have bred so badly that I have parted with the females and kept a male bird, and now get very good broods. My friends, to whom I have given young birds from my pair, also complain. The geese sit remarkably well, never showing themselves out of the nest by day, but whether they may leave the nests too long in the cold of the night, I cannot tell. The time of incubation I consider to be about four weeks and three days. The young birds of the crossed breed, in appearance, follow the mother, the common English goose, but they do remarkably well."

THE AMERICAN WILD GOOSE.

NATURAL HISTORY.

Every portion of it, (the young of the wild goose bred in the inland districts, and procured in September,) is useful to Man; for besides the value of the flesh, as an article of food, the feathers, the quills, and the fat, are held in request.

AUDUBON.

THE history of the "Canada" or "wild goose," as it is usually called, both in a state of nature and in captivity, has been so well and so fully delineated by the ablest ornithologists of Europe, as well as of this country, that for me to attempt giving complete details respecting it, would be either to restate the same facts in less appropriate language, perhaps, or to draw too liberally from the stores of those who have written before me; yet, this bird is by far too important, in every respect, to be entirely omitted in the present series; and there are a few points respecting it which ought to be brought into more prominent notice. Most writers on poultry call it a variety of the common goose. But it is no more a variety of goose than the swan is a variety of goose. Cuvier seems to doubt whether it is a goose at all, and says that it cannot be properly separated from the true swans. Audubon kept some three years, and though the old birds refused to breed in confinement, their young, which he had captured together with them, did. He states their period of incubation to be twenty-eight