WILD GEESE 141 



ily decreasing in numbers, although they are a long-lived 

 bird. My Canadas range in age from three years up to 

 an old mated pair that are twenty-four or twenty-five 

 years old. 



"Mr. J. W. Whealton of Chincoteague Island, Virginia, 

 whom I consider the greatest breeder of Canada geese at 

 the present time, has made a complete success of it, and 

 some of his old mated pairs have been breeding for more 

 than fifty years. It is a matter of record that one old 

 gander in one of the New England States was eighty 

 years old when the owner killed it because it had become 

 'mischievous.' 



"In 1907 the writer spent the entire summer in Alaska, 

 and the geese were breeding by the thousands in the 

 swamps near the mouth of the Copper River. The young 

 were ruthlessly slaughtered by the Siwashes, eaten by the 

 vermin, which abounds there, and otherwise destroyed in 

 large numbers before they could fly. Some day in the 

 very near future we will see the great V shaped flocks no 

 more. 



"Who has not felt a thrill as he read the lines of Bryant 

 in his 'Ode to the Waterfowl?' 'All day at that far 

 height thy wings have fanned the cold, thin atmosphere,' 

 yet how few of the younger generation east of the Missis- 

 sippi River have seen them of recent years passing over, 

 high in air. But we are fortunate in that these noble 

 game birds will increase in captivity and still retain their 

 health and all their wild characteristics year after year. 

 There is no reason why under the wise provisions of the 

 proposed 'breeders' law' they should not be found all over 

 our country, both for ornamental use, for sport and for 

 the market. Such legislation certainly will not decrease 



