CANADA GOOSE. 6l 



this is a period of danger for them, many being killed at 

 this time by the Eskimo and the Indians. 



All along the Missouri River and its tributaries, and 

 by lakes scattered over the great plains, the Canada 

 goose formerly bred in considerable numbers, and 

 twenty years ago broods of these birds were commonly 

 seen during the summer along these rivers and upon 

 the prairies near these little lakes. The settlement of 

 the western country, however, has made such breeding 

 places no longer available, and the geese are therefore 

 obliged to journey further to the North before rearing 

 their young. 



The wild goose is readily domesticated, and this fact 

 is taken advantage of by gunners, who capture crippled 

 birds, keep them until cured, and subsequently use them 

 as decoys to draw the passing flocks within gun-shot 

 of their places of concealment. Not infrequently the 

 geese breed in confinement, though it is probable this 

 does not take place until the females are three years old. 

 Sometimes such domesticated geese, when tethered out 

 as decoys, escape and swim off to join flocks of wild 

 geese, but as the tame ones commonly cannot fly, they 

 are left behind by the flocks when these move away, 

 and frequently turn about and make their way back to 

 the place where their fellow captives are confined. A 

 case of this sort came under my notice in Currituck 

 Sound in the winter of 1900, when an old gander be- 

 longing to the Narrows Island Club, that had slipped 

 his loops and gotten away, made his way back, after 

 three weeks of freedom, nearly to the goose pen where 



