204 BULLETIN 130, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Casual recoT'ds. — Accidental in eastern Greenland and Massachu- 

 setts, 



Egg dates. — Spitsbergen : Six records, June 16 to 27. 



BRANTA CANADENSIS CANADENSIS (Linnaeus) 



CANADA GOOSE 



HABITS 



The common wild goose is the most widely distributed and the 

 most generally well known of any of our wild fowl. From the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Gulf of Mexico nearly to the 

 Arctic coast it may be seen at some season of the year, and when 

 once seen its grandeur creates an impression on the mind which even 

 the casual observer never forgets. As the clarion notes float down- 

 ward on the still night air, who can resist the temptation to rush 

 out of doors and peer into the darkness for a possible glimpse at 

 the passing flock, as the shadowy forms glide over our roofs on their 

 long journey? Or, even in daylight, what man so busy that he will 

 not pause and look upward at the serried ranks of our grandest 

 wild fowl, as their well-known honking notes announce their coming 

 and their going, he knows not whence or whither? It is an im- 

 pressive sight well worthy of his gaze; perhaps he will even stop 

 to count the birds in the two long converging lines; he is sure to 

 tell his friends about it, and perhaps it will even be published in the 

 local paper, as a harbinger of spring or a foreboding of winter. 

 Certainly the Canada goose commands respect. 



Spring. — The Canada goose is one of the earliest of the water 

 birds to migrate in the spring. Those which have wintered farthest 

 south are the first to feel the migratory impulse, and they start about 

 a month earlier than those which have wintered at or above the 

 frost line, moving slowly at first but with a gradually increasing 

 rate of speed. Prof. Wells W. Cooke (1906) has shown, from his 

 mass of accumulated records, that beginning with an average rate of 

 9 miles a day, between the lowest degrees of latitude, the speed is 

 gradually increased through successive stages to an average rate of 

 30 miles a day during the last part of the journey. Following, as 

 it does, close upon the heels of retreating ice and snow, the migration 

 of these geese may well be regarded as a harbinger of spring; for 

 the same reason it is quite variable from year to year and quite de- 

 pendent on weather conditions. 



The first signs of approaching spring come early in the far south, 

 with the lengthening of the days and the increasing warmth of the 

 sun; the wild geese are the first to appreciate these signs and the 

 first to feel the restless impulse to be gone ; they congregate in flocks 

 and show their uneasiness by their constant gabbling and honking, 

 as if talking over plans for their journey, with much preening 



