214 BULLETIN 130, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Behavior. — In flight, Canada geese impress one as heavy, yet 

 powerful birds, as indeed they are. In rising from the water or from 

 the land they run along for a few steps before rising, but Audubon 

 (1840) says that "when suddenly surprised and in full plumage, a 

 single spring on their broad webbed feet is sufficient to enable them 

 to get on the wing." When flying about their feeding grounds or 

 elsewhere on short flights, they fly in compact or irregular bunches. 

 Their flight then seems heavy and labored, but it is really much 

 stronger and swifter than it seems, and for such heavy birds they 

 are really quite agile. It is only when traveling long distances that 

 they fly high in the air in the well-known V-shaped flocks, which 

 experience has taught them is the easiest and most convenient for 

 rapid and protracted flight. In this formation the leader, cleaving 

 the air in advance, has the hardest work to perform ; the lead is taken 

 by the strongest adult birds, probably the ganders, which change 

 places occasionally for relief ; the others follow along in the diverg- 

 ing lines at regular intervals, so spaced that each has room enough to 

 work his wings freely, to see clearly ahead, and to save resistance in 

 the wake of the bird ahead of him. As the wing beats are not always 

 in perfect unison, the line seems to have an undulatory motion, 

 especially noticeable when near at hand; but often the flock seems 

 to move along in perfect step. Flight is not always maintained in 

 the stereotyped wedge formation; sometimes a single, long, sloping 

 line is formed or more rarely they progress in Indian file. The 

 speed at which geese fly is faster than it seems, but it has often been 

 overestimated; the following statement by J. W. Preston (1892) is 

 of interest in this connection : 



The Canada goose presses onward, borne up by strong and steady pinions. 

 For forceful, solid business he has few rivals. I remember once, while travel- 

 ing by rail at a rate of 30 miles an hour, our way lay for a time along the 

 course of a swollen creek. A flock of geese, among them one little teal, came 

 alongside the train and kept almost within gunshot for fully 10 miles, seem- 

 ingly at an ordinary rate ; and the teal was at no loss to keep his place among 

 his larger companions. 



There are exceptions to the orderly method of procedure outlined 

 above. Audubon (1840) says that: 



When they are slowly advancing from south to north at an early period of 

 the season, they fly much lower, aliglit more frequently, and are more likely 

 to be bewildered by suddenly formed banks of fog, or by passing over cities 

 or arms of the sea, where much shipping may be in sight. On such occasions 

 great consternation prevails among them, they crowd together in a" confused 

 manner, wheel irregularly, and utter a constant cackling resembling the sounds 

 from a disconcerted mob. Sometimes the flock separates, some individuals 

 leave the rest, proceed in a direction contrary to that in which they came, and 

 after awhile, as if quite confused, sail toward the ground, once alighted on 

 which they appear to become almost stupefied, so as to suffer themselves 

 to be shot with ease, or even knocked down with sticks. Heavy snowstorms 



