36 PROCEEDINGS OP TUB 



possibly an immature Night Heron. Going out to examine the 

 Geese, I found the old pair had built a nest of grass close by 

 tlie three-foot board fence. It was on the dry ground, quite a 

 bulky aiiair, two feet across at the base and nearly a foot high. 

 As I walked around in the direction of the nest the old gander, 

 who seemed to stand sentinel on the bank fifty yards away, slid 

 oS into the water, swam to his mate, and met me with out- 

 stretched neck and wide-open mouth. I kept the fence between 

 us, and he stood beside the nest hissing at me and calling out 

 with a loud mellow note and frequently biting ard pulling at 

 the old goose as if to urge her to leave. She finally stood up, 

 showing five eggs, but gave no indication of any intention to 

 retreat. Both birds had a downward swinging motion of the 

 head and neck, not rapid, but frequently repeated, that brought 

 the throat in touch with the breast, then the head was quickly 

 niised again to about the full extent of the neck and the " honk 

 konk" Wiis uttered, or 1 was derided with a "hiss." The pen 

 contained three other Canada Geese that kept together, well off 

 from the nest, and I was told that the old gander did not allow 

 them nor the Wild Ducks to approach the nesting bird. These 

 other three Geese had been reared by the same pair of old birds, 

 the year previous, in this same pen. So far as I could note 

 they were full-grown birds in adult plumage, but it was the 

 opinion there that they will not breed imtil their third year. 

 Five eggs had been the set of the previous year, four of which 

 had hatched, but one of the goslings had early met with a fatal 

 accident. We were told that wild geese frequently came down 

 iind rested in this pen, attracted by the imprisoned birds that 

 were kept in bounds by occasionally shortening the primaries. 



After dinner we took a twenty-five foot gasoline launch and 

 went out to the inlet, two and a half miles distant as the Crow 

 tlies, but by channel lengthened to seven or eight miles. The 

 doctor and our boatman tried the fishing, first in the " dreen " 

 as our friends called the narrow tidal creek, and later went out 

 on the ocean front and cast for rock fish, while 1 beat the 

 marshes half a mile back from the ocean. Bird life here was 

 not very rich in species. Cover, except for a few small bushes, 

 was wanting, the season was backward, and the grass and reeds 



