Confusion, therefore, and perplexity are the certain
lot of whosoever attempts to trace this bird in our books
of natural history. Its place of birth has excluded it
from all monographs or limited ornithologies. In very
few systematic works is it mentioned at all, which is re-
markable of a bird so striking in its appearance, which
there is every reason to believe must have been domes-
ticated for a long period. The uncertainty that has
existed as to its correct name and really native country
may be one cause of this. Like the Jews, or the Gipsies,
it has not been allowed to claim a place among the


THE CHINA GOOSE. 223


natives of any one region; and like many others fur-
nished with a variety of aliases, it ends by being alto-
gether excluded from society.
The old writers call it the Guinea goose, for the
excellent reason, as Willughby hints, that in his time it
was the fashion to apply the epithet “ Guinea” to every-
thing of foreign and uncertain origin. Thus, what at
this day is erroneously called the “ Muscovy duck,” was
then called the “Guinea duck.” Not long back, it was
common to refer every strange or new object to a
French source. “Spanish goose” is another title, pro-
bably as appropriate as Guinea goose. Bewick has


THE CHINA GOOSE.
