Till; CANADA C< >(>SI\. 



No. 279. 



CANADA GOOSE. 



\. 0. (J. No. 17-'. Branta canadensis ( I, inn. I. 



Synonyms. "Wild Goose;" Common Wild Goose. 



Description, -.hi nil : Head and neck glossy .black ; a large white triangular 

 patch on either cheek, the two usually confluent on throat — occasionally an indis- 

 tinct white collar at base of black ; back and wings rich grayish brown; fore-breast 

 and below lighter grayish brown, tipped with pale fulvous or grayish white; heavier 

 toned "ii sides, where presenting a shingled appearance and shading into color of 

 back; lower belly, under tail-coverts, longer upper tail-coverts and flanks well up 

 on rump, pure while; rump and tail black; primaries blackening at tips; bill black; 

 feet dusky. Immature: Similar, but wdiite of cheeks and throat more or less 

 mixed with blackish. Length 35.00-42.00 (889.-1066.8) ; wing 20.00 1508); tail 

 7.00 (177.8); bill 2.30 (58.4) ; tarsus 3.55 (90.2). 



Recognition Marks.-- -Kagle size; black head and neck with wdiite cheek- 

 . and large size distinctive. 



Nest, "ii tin ground, on a cliff, or in a tree I a deserted I Isprey's nest and the 

 like), lined with down. Eggs, 4 or 5. light greenish buff, or huffy white, Av. size. 

 3.52 x 2.30 (89.4 x 5' s -4>- 



General Range. — Temperate North America, breeding in the northern United 

 State- and British Provinces; south in winter to Mexico. 



Range in Ohio. — Still tolerably common spring and fall migrant. Winters 

 sparingly in suitable Idealities. Formerly bred more or less throughout the state. 



HONK, honk — honk, honk! What a stirring sound is that which sum- 

 mons 11- from whatever task indoors, and hurries us out hatless, breathless. 

 into the crisp March air to behold a company of Wild Geese passing forward 

 into the frosty North! Honk, honk! We think madly of our gun upstairs, 

 for the Geese are provokingly near, and we hear the thrilling swish of the low 



■ wings; but we take it out in great boasts to our similarly hatless 



neighbor, of what we could have done if the gun had been put together and 



we had known thai those foolish Geese were coming right over town. And 



when the greal birds become a row of trailing point- on the northern sky. 



unrest burns within our veins, and we wonder through 



what ancestral folly our wings were clipped, and our race condemned to 



■ ! toil. 



For the Canada Goose there are but two point- of the compass, North 



and South; and unlike most migrants, he does not go by the map, nor follow 



through the air. hut dies straight over hill and dale, city and 



hamlet alike, until the goal is reached, or until the weather discourages further 



