CHAPTER VIII. 

 ALONG THE CREEK. 

 "'^ '^ "ou know that the Wild Geese are here ?" inquired a 



U fr 



friend of mine at Oak Orchard Creek, on the even- 

 ing of the 16th of March. "I fired into a large flock in the 

 wheat-field to-day and killed two." 



"Indeed! I am aware that they are quite destructive to 

 the wheat-fields for some four or five weeks in early spring, 

 all along the south of Lake Ontario," I replied. 



The Canada, or Common Wild Goose {Branta canadensis), 

 is the one referred to; and the two specimens, male and 

 female, are now mounted and before me in my study. The 

 male is some 38 inches, and the female some 34 inches in 

 length, thus appearing considerably larger than the com- 

 mon domestic Goose. The general color is a rich, dark- 

 gray, the plumage edged with lighter; bill, head, neck, 

 lower back, tips of wings, tail, and feet, black; patch across 

 the throat and up the sides of the head, and sometimes the 

 upper breast, grayish- white; vent and coverts at the root of 

 the tail, pure white. 



There is not a more characteristic bird in all North 

 America. Moving northward in large, noisy flocks in 

 spring, and southward in a similar manner in autumn, it 

 is the sure herald of the departure of the Ice King, as well 

 as of his return. Who does not know of the Wild Goose ? — 

 that it is the most sensitive of all our animated nature to 



