180 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



north, they steer for the Massachusetts coast, usually cross- 

 ing Cape Cod or Plymouth County. These flights are some- 

 times deflected out of their course by the wind, and thus the 

 Goose shooting of Plymouth and Barnstable counties fluctuates 

 from year to year. Practically all the Geese which come 

 directly south across country to the Maine coast turn south- 

 west and join this flight, which goes down along the coast of 

 Massachusetts, and furnishes the Goose shooting of Essex, 

 Norfolk, Plymouth, Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket coun- 

 ties. The increase of Geese on Anticosti for the last twenty 

 years probably accounts in part for the widespread belief 

 along our coast that Geese are not decreasing. The sports- 

 men of Massachusetts owe much to the Meunier family for 

 maintaining this great reservation for wild-fowl. It will be 

 interesting to see what the effect will be when in the course 

 of time this island passes into other hands. Another factor 

 in maintaining the numbers of the coast flight may be the 

 tendency of the birds to avoid danger in the interior by mov- 

 ing toward the coast. This would tend to decrease the interior 

 flight and increase the coastal migration. 



Many speculations have been offered by writers regarding 

 the utility of the flock formation of this species. It is com- 

 monly held that the old gander, leading, breasts the air and 

 overcomes its resistance, carrying it along with him, thus 

 assuming the heaviest of the labor, and breaking, as it were, 

 a way, like the foremost man treading out a path in the snow 

 for his companions to follow, and those behind, each spreading 

 a little to the right or left of the one preceding, have an 

 easier task because of the work of the leader. The form of 

 the Goose flight has one obvious advantage. Every bird in 

 the flock, flying in a line parallel with the leader, can see what 

 lies ahead, as there is no other bird directly before him, and 

 this may be one reason why these wary birds almost alwa^'s 

 assume their " flying wedge " formation. 



Geese evidently travel by well-known landmarks, and I 

 believe they are never lost except in thick weather. I have 

 known a flock to become utterly confused at night in a fog, 

 and to wander about over a city square for a long time before 



