WILD GEESE, CRANES, AND SWANS. 199 



handsome bird, weighing when fat from ten to 

 fourteen pounds. It winters in the south, and on 

 its passage towards the north does not stay with 

 us a great while, though a few remain all the 

 summer, and I have seen the nest of this goose 

 in the Winnebago Swamp. Their great breeding- 

 grounds are far to the north of any of the habi- 

 tations of white men, or even of Indians. They 

 have been seen above the latitude of eighty north, 

 and were even then flying on towards the pole. 

 In those solitary regions, during the brief arctic 

 summer, the several kinds of wild geese rear their 

 young in vast numbers, and, when in the fall they 

 set out upon their southerly migration, they fly in 

 innumerable flocks. They usually fly high, and, 

 though their flight seems to be labored, it is very 

 swift for so heavy a bird. In foggy weather their 

 flight is low, and they appear to be confused, as 

 if uncertain of the proper route. They intermix 

 freely with tame geese, and the cross is much 

 esteemed for its size and excellence on the table. 

 Canada geese are rather easily domesticated, but 

 even then the instinct of migration northward in 

 spring is so strong that they get uneasy. Some- 

 times when not pinioned they rise into the air 

 and join flocks going over, and sometimes they 



