LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WILD FOWL 211 



submerged, with their necks below the surface and their heads 

 barely above it, in a sort of hiding pose. 



P. A. Taverner (1922) describes an interesting pose assumed 

 by a family party on Cypress Lake, Saskatchewan. When pursued 

 by a motor boat — 



they put on more speed and arranged themselves in a long single file, one 

 parent leading, the other bringing up the rear, swimming low, and both with 

 their long necl^s outstretched and laid down flat on the water, making them- 

 selves as inconspicuous as possible. The young, coaxed from ahead and urged 

 from behind, paddled along vigorously between, one close behind the otlier. 

 From our low and distant point of view the effect was interesting. Tliey looked 

 like a floating stick. Certainly they would not impress the casual eye as a 

 family of Canada geese, and if we had not first seen them in a more charac- 

 teristic pose they would undoubtedly have been passed without recognition. 



Dr. Alexander Wetmore tells me that, in the Bear River marshes 

 in Utah where these geese breed, both old and young birds resort 

 during the summer to the seclusion of the lower marshes. Here he 

 found numerous places where the thick growth of bullrushes had been 

 beaten down to form roosting places for family parties, well littered 

 with cast-off feathers and other signs of regular occupancy. Here 

 they live in peace and safety while the young are attaining their 

 growth and their parents are molting. Before the shooting season 

 begins they gather into larger flocks, now strong of wing and ready 

 for their fall wanderings. 



James P. Howley (1884) gives the following account of the 

 behavior of these geese in Newfoundland: 



During the breeding season they molt the primary wing and tail feathers, 

 and are consequently unable to fly in the months of June, July, and the early 

 part of August. They keep very close during this molting season and are 

 rarely seen by day ; yet I have frequently come across them at such times in 

 the far interior and on many occasions have caught them alive. When sur- 

 prised on some lonely lake or river side they betake themselves at once to 

 the land and run very swiftly into the bush or tall grass to hide. But they 

 appear somewhat stupid, and if they can succeed in getting their heads out 

 of sight under a stone or stump imagine they are quite safe from observation. 

 When overtaken in the water and hard pressed they will dive readily, remain- 

 ing a considerable time beneath, swimming or running on the bottom very 

 last. About the 15th of August the old birds and most of the young ones are 

 capable of flight, and from thence to the 1st of September they rapidly gain 

 strength of wing. Soon after this they betake themselves to the seaside, con- 

 gregating in large flocks in the shallow estuaries or deep fiords, to feed during 

 the nighttime, but are off again to the barrens at earliest dawn, where they 

 are generally to be found in daytime. Here they feed on the wild berries, of 

 -which the common blueberry, partridge berry, marsh berry, and a small black- 

 l)erry {Empetrum nigrum) afford them an abundant supply. They are ex- 

 ceedingly wary at this season, and there is no approaching them at all on the 

 barrens. 



