LIFE HISTORIES O:^ NORTH AMERICAN WILD FOWL 167 



it " feeds on rushes, insects, and in autumn on berries, particularly 

 those of the empetnim nigrum^ Doctor Coues (1874) gives the 

 best account of its feeding habits, as follows : 



Various kinds of ordinary grass form a large part of tliis bird's food, at 

 least during their winter residence in the United States. They gather it 

 precisely as tame geese are wont to do. Flocks alight upon a meadow or 

 plain, and pass over the ground in broken array, cropping to either side as 

 they go, with the peculiar tweak of the bill and quick jerk of the neck 

 familiar to all who have watched the barnyard birds when similarly engaged. 

 The short, turfy grasses appear to be highly relished ; and this explains the 

 frequent presence of the birds in fields at a distance from water. They also 

 eat the bulbous roots and soft succulent culms of aquatic plants, and in 

 securing these the tooth-like processes of the bill are brought into special 

 service. Wilson again says that, when thus feeding upon reeds, " they tear 

 them up like hogs ; '' a questionable comparison, however, for the birds pull 

 up the plants instead of pushing or "rooting" them up. The geese, I think, 

 also feed largely upon aquatic insects, small moUusks. and marine invertebrates 

 of various kinds ; for they are often observed on mud flats and rocky places 

 by the seaside, where there is no vegetation whatever ; and it is probable 

 that when they pass over meadows they do not spare the grasshoppers. 

 Audubon relates that in Louisiana he has often seen the geese feeding in 

 wheat fields, where they plucked up the young plants entire. 



Behavior. — Dr. D. G. P]]Iiot (1898) says that the snow geese fly — 



very high in a long, extended curved line, not nearly so angular as the 

 V-shaped ranks of the Canada and other geese. With their snowy forms 

 moving steadily along in the calm air, the outstretched wings tipped with 

 black, glowing in the sun's rays with the faint blush of the rose, they present 

 a most beautiful sight. Usually they fly silently with hardly a perceptible 

 movement of the pinions, high above 



.» * * * j2ie landscape lying so far below 

 With its towns and rivers and desert places. 

 And the splendor of light above, and the glow 

 Of the limitless blue ethereal spaces." 



Occasionally, however, a solitary note like a softened " honk " is borne from 

 out the sky to the ear of the watcher beneath. Should they perceive a place 

 that attracts them, they begin to lower, at first gradually, sailing along on 

 motionless wings until near the desired spot, and then descend rapidly in 

 zigzag lines until the ground or water is almost reached, when with a few 

 quick flaps they gently alight. 



Vernon Bailey (1902) writes: 



They are oftenest seen on the wing high overhead in long diagonal lines 

 or V-shaped flocks, flying rapidly and uttering a chorus of shrill falsetto 

 cries. 



Illustrating the sociability of the snow goose, in its relation to 



other species, W. Leon Dawson (1909) says: 



Snow geese dispense shrill fal.setto cries as they fly about in companies of 

 their own kind, or else mingle sociably with other species. Doctor Newberry 

 says he has often seen a triangle of geese flying steadily, high overhead. 



