542 The Water-fowl Family 



Pacific Coast than either of the other geese. It 

 often gathers in flocks so large that when stream- 

 ing over the wavy green of the plain with some 

 huge mountain for a background it almost matches 

 the line of snow upon its crest. When standing 

 on the green it often looks as if acres were drifted 

 over with snow, while its clamorous pipe adds to 

 the music that day and night vibrates between 

 earth and sky. Its flesh is dark and not quite so 

 good as that of the other geese, but when fairly fat 

 it is still a very good bird. It is game to the very 

 last, puzzling even the expert to bag in any fair 

 way, while the tenderfoot can easily see millions 

 in a day without pocketing one. Its mode of life 

 and travel is much the same as that of the other 

 geese, with which it is often in company, and the 

 ways of shooting it are alike. 



The snow goose is fairest when alighting in 

 water, where his manner is quite unique. He too 

 comes in high in air as if he would cross the pond. 

 But as it nears the edge the flock lengthens and 

 then rises in front until it hangs in a column at 

 an angle of fifty or sixty degrees with the level of 

 the water. Then, with every black-tipped wing 

 thrown forward and downward in a rigid curve, 

 and every snowy body parallel to the inclination 

 of the column, each bird floats downward as softly 

 as the streamers of fire from a rocket. How bodies 

 so heavy can so hang in air and preserve such 



