i6o 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



The Canada Goose is the best known member 

 of the subfamily Anscrincr in eastern and central 

 North America. Nearly everyone is familiar 

 with the sight of the V-shaped bands of these 



Photo by T. G. Pearson Courtesy o£ Nat. Asso. Aud. Soc. 



NEST AND EGGS OF CANADA GOOSE 



Stump Lake, North Dakota 



sjjlendid birds as they migrate southward in 

 autumn, or in spring when they again turn their 

 wing-beats toward the frozen pole. The great 

 breeding grounds of thi.. Goose are in the LiSrit- 

 ish provinces, few, if any, of the eastern flight 

 pausing in spring south of the Canadian border, 

 in the western States, however, they breed com- 

 monly in many localities. Thus, I have found 

 their eggs on islands in lakes of North Dakota, 

 and come upon the young attended by the parents 

 in Oregon and northern California. It is a 

 rather curious fact that shortly after the young 

 have hatched, the parents begin a molt of feathers 

 which is frequently so extensive that the birds 

 lose the jjower of flight. At this season they 

 must of course depend entirely upon their 

 wonderful ability to swim, when in search of 

 food, or endeavoring to escape their enemies. 



Canada Geese are not flesh eaters, the grain- 

 fields of the great Northwest being their special 

 delight. During the fall migration they often 

 come here in great numbers and feed on the 

 grain scattered among the stubble at harvest time. 

 Along the lower Missisr-ippi River they may often 

 be seen in the fields of Tennessee and Arkansas. 

 Like most Geese, while feeding, they have one or 

 more sentinels constantly on the lookout for 

 danger. Furthermore the members of a feeding 

 flock are continually rising up and looking about, 

 so that there are always a number of lieads in the 

 air. 



These birds assemble in enormous numbers on 

 favorite feeding grounds in Chesapeake Bay and 

 in the sounds of North Carolina. In Currituck 

 Sound I have seen one flight that was two hours 

 in passing a given point. Tliey came in one 

 long wavy rank after another, from twenty to 

 thirty of these extended lines of Geese being in 

 sight at a time. The Canada Goose is highly 

 esteemed as an article of food, and when one 

 stops to think of the incessant gun-fire to which 

 they have long been subjected, it is hard to under- 

 stand why their numbers have not materially de- 

 creased. T. Gilbert Pearson. 



The Canada Geese " feed largely on vegetable 

 matter, the roots of rushes, weeds, grasses, etc., 

 grass, and many seeds and berries, and swallow 

 quantities of sand as an aid to digestion. Geese 

 either feed on shore, when they pluck up grass 

 and other vegetation, or they bring up food 

 from the bottom in shoal water by thrusting their 

 heads and necks down as they float on the sur- 

 face. Like the Brant, they feed on eel-grass, 

 which grows on the flats in salt or brackish water, 

 in tidal streams, and marshy ponds. Sometimes 

 they are destructive to young grass and grain." 

 ( Forbush.) 



Hutchins's Goose (Branta canadensis Jiittch- 

 insi) is precisely like the Canada Goose in 

 everything except size ; its length is but 25 to 34 

 inches, and its weight is generally three or four 

 pounds, rarely exceeding six pounds. It breeds 

 in the Arctic region of North America and mi- 

 grates south in winter chiefly through western 



Photo by H. K. Job 



NEST AND EGGS OF CANADA GOOSE 

 Saskatchewan 



United States and the Mississippi valley. Some- 

 times it visits northeastern Asia. Throughout its 

 range it is variously known also as Goose-brant, 



