CANADA GOOSE. 299 



are composed of decayed leaves, dry grass, willow sticks, 

 turf, and moss lined with feathers and down ; the eggs, 

 varying from six to nine in number, are thick- shelled, dull 

 white in colour, and measure about 3'5 by 2*5 in. 



The food of the Canada Goose appears to consist mainly 

 of grass, but young birds are also partial to locusts, slugs, 

 and snails. On the spring migrations, flocks not unfre- 

 quently alight in fields of young grain, and commit great 

 havoc in the course of a single night. Both keenness of 

 sight and quickness of hearing are remarkable in this bird, 

 and it is so vigilant and suspicious that it is seldom taken by 

 surprise. Its call is imitated by a prolonged nasal pro- 

 nunciation of the syllable tcook frequently repeated, and by 

 this means it is sometimes decoyed within gunshot by the 

 hunters in the Fur-countries. 



The beak is black ; the irides very dark brown ; head, 

 and nearly all the neck, black ; chin and throat white, ex- 

 tending upwards, and ending in a point behind the ear- 

 coverts. This white patch, from its similarity in colour 

 and position to a neckcloth, has given origin to one of the 

 names of the species, the Cravat Goose. The back and 

 the wing-coverts, the secondaries and tertials, brown, the 

 feathers of all these, except the first, with lighter-coloured 

 edges ; primaries and tail-feathers black ; the rump also 

 black ; the upper tail-coverts white ; lower part of the neck 

 almost white ; breast and belly pale brown ; vent and under 

 tail-coverts white ; legs, toes, and interdigital membranes 

 dark lead-colour, almost black. The whole length, accord- 

 ing to Richardson, is forty-one or forty-two inches ; the 

 wing, from the carpal joint to the end of the second and 

 longest quill-feather, nineteen inches and a half. 



