. Our domestic birds; . Fig. 144. Brown China Geese. (Photograph byE. J. Hall) 164 OUR DOMESTIC BIRDS Would their wild ancestors (supposing them to have the samecharacteristics) be equally fertile ? Unless we can find a wildancestor for the Chinese type, all that we know of the relationsof domestic races points to the conclusion that they, like theEuropean races, are descended from the Gray Lag Goose. The variety known as the African Goose is a larger andcoarser type of the Brown China, and is probably obtained bycrossing with the Toulouse or by selection from mixed Fig. 145. African
. Our domestic birds; . Fig. 144. Brown China Geese. (Photograph byE. J. Hall) 164 OUR DOMESTIC BIRDS Would their wild ancestors (supposing them to have the samecharacteristics) be equally fertile ? Unless we can find a wildancestor for the Chinese type, all that we know of the relationsof domestic races points to the conclusion that they, like theEuropean races, are descended from the Gray Lag Goose. The variety known as the African Goose is a larger andcoarser type of the Brown China, and is probably obtained bycrossing with the Toulouse or by selection from mixed Fig. 145. African Geese on a Rhode Island farm Nothing definite is known of the origin of this type, but to anyone familiar with the stock in the goose-growing district of RhodeIsland, and with the breeding methods of the farmers there asapplied in the development of the Rhode Island Red fowl, itappears probable that African Geese came from this varieties. There are two ornamental varieties ofdomestic geese and quite a number of species of wild geese thatare kept in collections of fancy waterfowl. The SebastopolGoose evidently belongs to the common domestic species. It is GEESE 165 about the size of the common goose, is white in color, and hasa peculiar development of some of the feathers of the body andwings, this development of the plumage giving the variety itsornamental character. A number of feathers on the back of thisbird are long and twisted, as if they had been loosely curled, andlie in a wavy mass on the back and rump. The Egyptian Gooseis the smallest do
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