218 BULLETIN 130, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



gathering on the coasts or on the hirger bodies of water in large 

 numbers, moving about slowly and deliberately and reveling in the 

 milder temperatures and abundant food to be found in such places. 

 But the shortening days and the sharpening frosts of autumn 

 accelerate their movements and they prepare for their long journey; 

 at length the leaders sununon their hosts to meet on high ; and form- 

 ing in two long converging lines, pointing toward the already 

 feeble rays of the noonday sun, they start. High in the air they 

 travel on, cheered by the clarion call of the leader, answered at fre- 

 quent intervals by his followers, far above all dangers and straight 

 along the well-known path. When bewildered by fogs or storms 

 or when overtaken by darkness the flight is lower and full of 

 dangers. But usually toward night a resting place is sought; per- 

 haps some well-known lake is sighted and the weary birds are glad 

 to answer the call of some fancied friend below them; so setting 

 their wings the flock glides down in a long incline, circling about 

 the lake for a place to alight, and greeting their friends with loud 

 calls of welcome. Too often their friends prove to be domesticated 

 traitors, trained to lure them to the gunner's blind, and it is a wary 

 goose indeed that can detect the sham. But, if all goes well, they 

 rest during the hours of darkness and are off again at daybreak, 

 for now they must push along fast until they reach their winter 

 haven. Dr. John C. Phillips (1910 and 1911«) has published two 

 very interesting papers on the migrations of Canada geese in Massa- 

 chusetts which are well worth reading; but as they are principally 

 of local interest and are too lengthy to quote in full, I would refer 

 the reader to them rather than attempt to quote from them. 



Game. — Many and varied are the methods employed by gunners 

 to bring to bag the wily wild goose. On account of its large size 

 and generally good table qualities it has always been much in de- 

 mand as a game bird; it is so wary, so sagacious, and so difficult 

 to outwit that its pursuit has always fascinated the keen sportsman 

 and taxed his skill and his ingenuity more than any other game 

 bird. According to Henry Keeks (1870) the settlers of New- 

 foundland were formerly adepts in tolling geese with the help of 

 a dog ; he describes the method, as follows : 



The sportsman secretes himself in the bushes or long grass by the sides 

 of any water on which geese are seen, and keeps throwing a glove or stick 

 in the direction of the geese, each time making his dog retrieve the object 

 thrown; this has to be repeated until the curiosity of the geese is aroused, 

 and they commence swimming toward the moving object. If the geese are 

 a considei-able distance from the land, the dog is sent into the water, but 

 as the birds approach nearer and nearer the dog is allowed to show himself 

 less and less; in this manner they are easily tolled within gunshot. When 

 the sportsman has no dog with him he has to act the part of one by crawling 



