ORNITHOLOGIST 



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iS-Xo. I 



Domestication of the Canada Goose. 



It is thoug'nt by a great many and some- 

 times appears in print that tlie Wild Goose 

 will not breed in confinement, or, in other 

 words, in a domesticated state ; but as an 

 experiment of this kind has come under 

 my immediate observation, I will relate it 

 in detail for the benefit of the readers of 

 the Ornithologist and Oologist. It 

 appears that some one found them breed- 

 ing along the banks of a river in Minne- 

 sota, and while the old goose with her 

 young was feeding out on the land, he ran 

 up between them and the river bank, and 

 of course the young became an easy prey, 

 as they were too young to fly. 



A pair of these young geese were sent to 

 Chauncey Baker, of this place, who, after 

 keeping them awhile, sold them to Luther 

 Briggs, of this vicinity. Not long after- 

 wards the female died, leaving the gander 

 alone ; and after he became fully matured 

 Ml'. Briggs procured a tame goose to try 

 the experiment of crossing them, which 

 proved a success, for several broods of hy- 

 brids were raised which had all the charac- 

 teristics of the wild variety and resembled 

 them so much in color that no one but an 

 expert could tell them from pure l)red 

 Wild Geese ; but of course they were 

 sterile and would not breed. On one oc- 

 casion, during the fall migration, some of 

 these half breeds went South, and were 

 not seen again till the following summer 

 during oat harvest, when they returned 

 and brought with them some pure wild 

 ones. The half Ijreeds came to the barn- 

 yard, but the wild ones kept to the fields. 

 Mr. Briggs tried to capture them, but 

 failed and thev soon left, while the half 

 breeds remained at tlieir old home. After 

 this he cut oil' one wing, at the first joint, 

 of all the yoiuig ones he raised, for they 

 were very restless during the migrating 

 season. In the spring of iSS6, Mr. M. 

 L. Rice, of Utica, Michigan, procured a 



pure-bred young wild gosling that was 

 caught somewhere in Dakota. It proved 

 to be a female, and he let Mr. Briggs take 

 it to cross with his old wild gander on 

 shares, providing they would breed, Mr. 

 Rice reserving the right to buy Mr. Briggs' 

 should he ever wish to sell them. Of 

 course Mr. Briggs got rid of all his other 

 Geese and kept only the pair of pure wild 

 ones, and in the spring of 1S89, when the 

 Goose was three years old, she built her 

 first nest in a piece of woods and laid seven 

 eggs, and while she was sitting, a Fox or 

 some other wild animal destroyed all of 

 the eggs and nearly killed the Goose, bit- 

 ing her badly about the neck ; and in the 

 spring of 1890 Mr. Briggs confined them 

 during the breeding season in a large gar- 

 den near the house where there was a creek 

 running through its centre. Near this 

 creek she built her nest and laid five eggs 

 and in due time she hatched every egg. 

 When the goslings were about half grown 

 one of them died, and the other four came 

 to maturity ; and in the spring of 1S91 the 

 old Geese wei"e again confined in this same 

 garden and near the creek. The female 

 again built her nest, and when she had 

 laid three eggs Mr. Briggs removed them 

 from the nest for safe keeping and added 

 a little more straw to the nest, which 

 broke her up. She never went near it 

 again. The}' afterwards found one egg in 

 the creek, which was badly water-soaked 

 and stained. I offered him one dollar for 

 one of these fresh eggs, but he would not 

 sell it. He kept the eggs some time and 

 then set them under a hen. The water- 

 soaked egg got broken under the hen and 

 the other three were addled. I procured 

 one of these addled eggs as a specimen for 

 my cabinet, Robert Alexander got one, 

 and the other was given to a friend of the 

 Briggs family. 



Again, in the spring of 1S92, the female 

 built her nest and laid seven eggs. Mr. 

 Albert Durfee procured one of these eggs 



