64 KNOWING BIRDS THROUGH STORIES 



to feed, and they often spent the entire winter on the 

 Skunk river, roosting wherever they could find an open 

 place in the ice, flying back and forth from the fields to 

 the river every day. They usually did their feeding in 

 the late evening or the early morning, leaving the corn- 

 fields soon after dawn. When flying they form a V-- 

 shaped line, the same bird usually flying at the point 

 of the V and leading the flock. 



Often they are hatched and kept on the farm for years, 

 but they do not breed well in captivity, tho sometimes they 

 become really domesticated. It is wise, however, to keep a 

 wing cropped to prevent them from leaving in the early 

 spring or fall. Like all of the geese, in the summer they 

 feed largely on grass, snails, crawfish, and such things as 

 they can get at the edges of the ponds, but in winter they 

 depend largely on seeds and grains. Very few of them 

 now breed in the United States, except in the Yellow- 

 stone National Park, where they are protected, and in a 

 few other localities; and if their breeding places are 

 crowded farther north, they may become extinct in our 

 country. 



