i86 PROPAGATION OF WILD BIRDS 



the fall and winter they can be on a pond with ducks if 

 there is plenty of room, so the ducks can get out of the way 

 of the geese. But in the breeding season geese should be 

 separated by pairs. Particularly will they kill young of 

 other species, and by their fighting will prevent timid ducks 

 from breeding. 



Breeding Quarters. They can be allowed to breed in 

 the same enclosure where they winter. Though the ganders 

 will quarrel considerably, there will usually be no serious 

 trouble if there is enough ground so that each pair can nest 

 quite a distance apart. Harry T. Rogers quotes Captain 

 Bartlett, the Arctic explorer, as saying that in the far north 

 he has seen geese nesting in colonies, the nests being quite 

 near together, but these may not have been the Canada goose. 

 At any rate they should have plenty of room. Ground 

 such as an ordinary field or pasture will do, adjoining water. 



Mating. Geese are naturally monogamous, and generally 

 mate for life. Nevertheless, captured wild Canada geese, 

 some of which surely must have been mated, after a time 

 usually pair. In such cases the female is more reluctant to 

 breed than the male, and is inclined to delay a couple of 

 years or more before yielding, whereas the male will gen- 

 erally breed the following spring. Usually they begin 

 when three years old, but individuals vary. Occasionally 

 they breed when one year old, but some delay till the fourth 

 or fifth year. There are occasionally those which never 

 mate. They are independent about mating, and cannot 

 be made to pair by shutting up two together. Naturally 

 the young reared in captivity make the best breeding-stock. 



A. G. MacVicar once sent a pair of Canada geese to Eng- 

 land which did not breed for eight years, when they raised 

 a brood of seven. The following year there were three 

 nests, as some of the young bred when a year old. 



