WILD-FOWL OF WILD-FOWL 



eggs. It was a nest of the Canada Goose. We 

 had heard Geese honking as we approaced the isl- 

 and, and had seen at least one making off. Here 

 was the buried treasure they had hoped would be 

 unobserved. I had always thought of the wild 

 Geese as breeding only in the far north. This was 

 the first nest of this sort that I had ever seen, and 

 it would be hard to describe the feelings with 

 which I viewed it. It seemed as though I were 

 in a trackless wilderness, perhaps very near the 

 pole, except that the sun was too warm for such 

 high latitude. At any rate, I had the delightful 

 sense of boreal adventure without its hardships. 



We saw nothing of the owners of the nest, so, 

 after photographing it, we proceeded to the second 

 island, where we actually found another Goose nest 

 in a short time. This one held five eggs and was 

 situated in short grass a sort of lawn it was just 

 back from the bank, on the higher part of the 

 island, overlooking the lake. It seemed a rather 

 conspicuous place for the great bird to sit with so 

 little cover, but no doubt she squatted close enough 

 when danger was near, if, indeed, she allowed any- 

 one to approach within observing distance while she 

 was there. This nest was very slight, being little 

 more than a hollow lined with down. 



There was no Goose nest on the third island, 

 but we discovered another on the last that had 

 evidently been rifled. It was a rude pile of grass 

 and down, placed near one end of the island, at the 

 top of a gravel-spit, among some weeds. Out at 

 the extremity of the spit, as we approached, we 

 saw the two Geese standing with outstretched 



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