206 BULLETIN 130, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



of chivalry would now be performed ; as it is, thrust and blow succeed each 

 other like the strokes of hammers driven by sturdy forgers. But now, the 

 mated gander has caught hold of his antagonist's head with his bill ; no bull- 

 dog can cling faster to his victim ; he squeezes him with all the energy of rage, 

 lashes him with his powerful wings, and at length drives him away, spreads 

 out his pinions, runs with joy to his mate, and fills the air with cries of 

 exultation. 



Nesting. — Reaching their breeding grounds early in the season and 

 being in most cases ah'eady paired, these geese are naturally among 

 the earliest breeders; their eggs are usually hatched and the nests 

 deserted before many of the other wild fowl have even laid their 

 eggs, the dates varying of course with the latitude. When I visited 

 North Dakota in 1901 there were still quite a number of Canada 

 geese breeding there ; probably many of them have since been driven 

 farther west or north, as they love solitude and retirement during 

 the nesting season. We found them nesting on the islands in the 

 lakes and in the marshy portions of the sloughs, building quite 

 different nests in the two locations. On May 31 we found a nest 

 on an island in Stump Lake, which had evidently been deserted for 

 some time ; the island was also occupied by nesting colonies of double- 

 crested cormorants and ring-billed gulls and by a few breeding 

 ducks; the goose nest was merely a depression in the bare ground 

 among some scattered large stones lined with a few sticks and straws 

 and a quantity of down. In a large slough in Nelson County we 

 found, on June 2, a deserted nest containing 3 addled eggs, the 

 broken shells of those that had hatched being scattered about the 

 nest. It was in a shallow portion of the slough where the dead flags 

 had been beaten down flat for a space 50 feet square. The nest was 

 a bulky mass of dead flags, 3 feet in diameter and but slightly hol- 

 lowed in the center. Within a few yards of this, and of a similar 

 nest found on June 10, was an occupied redhead's nest ; the proximity 

 of these two ducks' nests to those of the geese may have been merely 

 accidental, but the possibility is suggested that they may have been 

 so placed to gain the protection of the larger birds. This suggestion 

 was strengthened when I saw a skunk foraging in the vicinity; un- 

 doubtedly these animals find an abundant food supply in the numer- 

 ous nests of ducks and coots in these sloughs. 



Somewhat similar nests were fovmd by our party in Saskatchewan, 

 including two beautiful nests on an island in Crane Lake, found on 

 June 2, 1905. The largest of these was in an open grassy place on 

 the island, about 25 yards from the open shore ; it consisted of a great 

 mass of soft down, " drab gray " in color, measuring 16 inches in 

 outside diameter, 7 inches inside, and 4 inches in depth; it was very 

 conspicuous and contained 6 eggs. As I approached it and when 

 about a hundred yards from it, the goose walked deliberately from 



