244 THE Brrps Asout Us. 
make the bird very welcome had they no value other- 
wise, or forever kept beyond the rifle’s range. 
Of the seven or eight species of geese found in 
this country, the Canada Goose and Brant on the 
Atlantic coast and the White-fronted and Snow 
Goose on the Pacific side are probably the most 
abundant. These birds all breed in the far north, 
and enter the United States in autumn and return in 
spring. 
In the more densely settled regions, even where 
there are no large towns upon our river-banks for 
many miles, the appearance of geese on our Eastern 
rivers is not any more a common occurrence. It is 
true that these birds are killed every autumn by profes- 
sional gunners, but the flocks that fly over far exceed 
in number the few that tarry even for a day. Con- 
trary winds and dense fogs sometimes force the mi- 
grating geese to stop where they would never volun- 
tarily halt, as in open fields, on mill-ponds, and in the 
river within sight of town. Such haps on their part 
generally prove to be mishaps. It is along the sea- 
coast, or in the far West, along the great river val- 
leys, that wild geese are to be seen in their glory, 
and when followed persistently by the professional 
gunners, in their misery. Wilson says of the Canada 
goose, in part, as follows: 
“The flight of the Wild Geese is heavy and laborious, generally 
in a straight line, or in two lines approximating to a point, thus > ; 
in both cases the van is led by an old gander, who every now and 
then pipes his well-known 4oz2, as if to ask how they come on, and 
the honk of ‘all’s well’ is generally returned by some of the party. 
Their course is in a straight line, with the exception of the undula- 
tions of their flight. When bewildered in foggy weather they appear 
