72 ] Birds of Farm and Zoo 



GEESE AND How TO KNOW THEM 



"What's the difference between a duck and a goose?" is a 

 question that might readily occur to any boy or girl. There is 

 much about either animal that suggests the other, and it is true 

 that they both belong to the same bird family. Still, a duck is a 

 duck and a goose is a goose! The goose is more of a "landlubber" 

 than the duck and feeds more on land vegetation. Its beak is 

 harder, and less flat in appearance, than a duck's. The legs of the 

 goose are not placed so far back on its body, so that geese are 

 able to walk and run more freely than ducks. 



While male and female ducks are easily distinguished by the 

 usual sex difference in coloration, geese are alike in color. (The 

 gander, however, is larger than his mate. He shares the responsi- 

 bility of incubating the eggs and helps to care for the goslings.) 

 Finally, geese usually have longer necks than ducks. All these 

 distinctions add up to a difference which your boy or girl will 

 easily notice. 



Domestic geese have largely lost their power of flight, but in 

 other ways they suggest their wild relatives. They honk to each 

 other in expressive goose language. Mother and father bird are 

 devoted to each other and to their young. They proudly take their 

 goslings to the pond for the first swimming lesson and gently push 

 them in with their bills if they hesitate. 



It is not uncommon for a wild goose that has been injured or 

 become overtired to join a domestic flock along the path of its 

 flight. But usually after a season "the call of the wild" is so strong 

 that it will join any flock that happens along unless the farmer 

 has clipped its wings. 



"Silly Goose!": Have you ever called your child a "silly goose"? 

 This widely used expression is strangely inappropriate, for geese 

 usually seem to know just what they want and how to go about 

 getting it. Some people contend that geese are among the smartest 

 of all animals. 



A goose named Simon who lived on a farm I often visited well 

 deserved this reputation. He appointed himself guardian of the 

 small boy of the family, he would take no nonsense from the dog, 



