96 



ANATID.E. 



spring. The Canada Goose generally builds its nest on the 

 ground, but some pairs occasionally breed on the banks of 

 the Saskatchewan in trees, depositing their eggs in the de- 

 serted nests of ravens or fishing eagles. Its call is imitated 

 by a prolonged nasal pronunciation of the syllable wook fre- 

 quently repeated." The Canada Goose is well known to the 

 ornithologists of the United States. 



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

 nearly all the neck, black ; chin and throat white, extending 

 upwards, and ending in a point behind the ear-coverts. This 

 white jiatch, from its similarity in colour and position to a 

 neckcloth, has given origin to one of the names of this spe- 

 cies, 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 of an adult bird, according to Dr. Rich- 

 ardson, forty-one or forty-two inches ; the length of the wing, 

 from the carpal joint to the end of the longest quill-fcather, 

 nineteen inches and a half. 



Females are smaller than the males. 



From the swan-like length of neck, and the large size of 

 this species, some authors have included it in the genus 

 Cygniis. The organ of voice is also like that of the Mute 

 Swan, to be hereafter described and figured. I shall have 

 occasion also, hereafter, to refer to the relations which certain 

 of the Geese exhibit to the Swans, and to each of the two 

 great divisions of the true Ducks. 



