154 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



was put upon the liead of the Ruddy Uuck to 

 meet the market demand. Unfortunately for its 

 safety it feeds upon delicate grasses and other 

 vegetable aliment in preference to sea-food. 

 Therefore, its flesh is a passable substitute for 

 that of the Canvas-back. So the market gun- 

 ners have pursued it until its numbers are no 

 longer legion and its chances for extinction are 

 good. 



The male is a handsome bird in the breeding 

 season but presents rather a ridiculous appear- 

 ance in mating time, as he swims pompously 

 about with his head lifted proudly and drawn 



away back toward the spread tail, which is raised 

 and thrown forward as if to meet it. 



This Duck nests in prairie sloughs, where the 

 broods remain until after all the other breeding 

 Ducks have departed. Old and young are regular 

 gourmands and, according to Gurdon Trumbull, 

 gunners near the mouth of the Maumee River 

 told of finding them floundering helplessly fat, 

 on the water and in some seasons floating about 

 dead or dying in numbers. But this was before 

 the days of the market demand for their flesh. 

 They do not have so much time to get fat now. 

 Edw,\kd Howe Forbush. 



GEESE 



Order Anscrcs; family Aiiatidcc; subfamily Aiiscriua: 



HE Geese in scientific terminology constitute the subfamily Anserincc, of the 

 family Anatidcc (Goose-like swimmers), included in the order Anseres-(Water 

 fowl). They comprise nine or ten genera and about forty species, of which 

 ten or twelve occur in the United States. Of these, however, only two or three 

 species are actual residents of this country, and the remainder are no more 

 than migratory visitants south of the Canadian boundary. 



The group are closely related to the Swans, from which they dififer in hav- 

 ing the neck shorter than the body, and the lores feathered; they are also 

 closely allied to the Ducks, from most of which they differ in having the tarsus 

 enclosed in small, hexagonal scales, and in the similarity in color of the 

 sexes. They also lack the cere, or soft swollen surface at the base of the upper 

 bill, which is characteristic of the Ducks. Still another marked difference is shown in the 

 feeding habits of the Geese, which often take them into fields far away from water. This 

 habit is due to the fact that Geese walk much more readily than do Ducks, because of their 

 legs being set further forward on their bodies. Their food is almost wholly vegetable. In 

 the water they take seeds and roots of aquatic plants, which they get by searching the vege- 

 tation below the surface, an operation which they accomplish by completely immersing the 

 head and long neck, tipping the body meanwhile so that the tail points straight upward. 

 On land they feed in the spring on sprouting grain, and in the fall on corn, oats, wheat, and 

 barley, taken from the stubble fields. 



Geese nest invariably on the ground and usually line their nests with their own down 

 to which sometimes soft grasses are added. The eggs, from four to six or eight in number, 

 are white. The coloration of several species of Geese varies greatly according to their 

 habitat and the seasons. 



Owing to their great powers of flight the Geese cover immense distances in their annual 

 migrations, many species nesting well within the Arctic Circle, and ranging far to the south 

 in W'inter. 



