Canadian Forestry Journal, March, 1919 



141 



was not enough to eat. We brought the feed 

 close to the house and let the tamer ones come 

 there to eat. I was speaking at the Rotary 

 Club in London the other day, and one gentle- 

 man asked me how I moved the birds. This 

 was my explanation to him: If you wani to 

 move your birds, keep moving the food accord- 

 ingly, and pretty soon you can put the spoon 

 in your mouth and the birds will alight on it. 



I will tell you about one family, one of a 

 dozen interesting cases last autumn. On 

 October 10, six geese came. By the way, we 

 never had over 150 in the autumn. Which 

 way do they come in the autumn. I went out 

 and called to these six geese, and the old gan- 

 der answered. He knew me. I got twelve 

 ears of corn, and threw one of them at him. 

 Just as I did so the four baby geese jumped 

 into the air, but he called them and they 

 dropped down. Then I threw more ears of 

 corn, and each time the same thing would 

 happen; he would sound that low note, and 

 every time he did so the geese would come 

 down. By the time I had thrown the eighth 

 ear he had convinced them that all was well, 

 and they didn't fly up any more. It was in- 

 teresting to watch him trying to educate them 

 to take the kernels of corn off the ear, but it 

 was strange to them. He would get a kernel 

 off and drop it down, but it was fully fifteen 

 minutes before he got those goslings to take 

 the corn; when they did start they cleaned 

 off every kernel of the twelve ears. That told 

 me these young goslings have never seen an 

 ear of corn before, and that they had come 

 all the way from Hudson Bay without a mouth- 

 ful and dropped down there. The old gander 

 had led them all the way down. 



Why "Canada Goose"? 



My wife and I coaxed this old gander and 

 his five goslings into the coop and she held 

 the door while I went in and clamped a tag on 

 his leg. After I tagged him I took him to the 

 door and threw him out this same old gander 

 that had been telling his girls and boys to eat 

 the corn and to stay there and not be afraid. 

 When I threw the gander out, did he fly to 

 the lake? To know the Canada goose is to 

 love him forever, and if there is any person 

 in Ottawa who can tell me how that most in- 

 telligent, self-sacrificing bird came to be hon- 

 ored by being called the Canada goose, I wish 

 he would write me. You cannot show me any 

 of his actions that one need be ashamed of, not 

 one. 



To resume my story. This old gander went 

 out, and when he was about two rods away 

 he turned around and looked back. You 

 could hear him calling for the rest of his 

 family in that little catch pen. Mrs. Miner 

 at this time would rather have been on the 

 inside looking out than on the outside looking 

 in, because, as I was catching number two, 

 the gander came right back to the door and 

 tried to break in and get at me. We are 

 talking about the same bird that I tried to get 

 a shot at three fields away; here he is now 

 fighting to get at me to protect his young — 

 trying to get his young out. He didn't leave 

 that door until every one of his family had 

 been liberated; he stood right there and fought 

 for them. We caught him the second time, 

 put a cuff on each leg and named him "Sir 

 John Moore". We put on the tag this verse 

 of Scripture: 



"No good thing will He withhold from 



them, that walk uprightly". 



They migrated as usual, and on March 1 7 

 following, the boys said, "Look! Dad," and 

 there was old Sir John Moore looking for more 

 corn, with the two cuffs on his legs. Five of 

 his family had returned; he had taken care of 

 them down in the southern states all winter, 

 and brought them back. The last week in 

 April they disappeared, and my heart sank 

 when I opened a letter from Fort George, 

 James Bay, and found four of the tags. The 

 letter read: "The Indian says that seven geese 

 came into their decoys, and they killed four 

 of them; each one had a tag on it". \o\i 

 know just how I would feel, although that is 

 part of the game. To the fellow who wants 

 to shoot let me say this: I am not ooposed to 

 a man shooting a bird or two, but will you not 

 loin with us in limiting your gun? Remember, 

 that bird that falls out of the air from your 

 deadly aim gives you and me a little pleasure, 

 but deprives thousands of people of pleasure 

 and recreation in seeing it alive. Let us con- 

 sid-'r that; let us think it over. 



Dniilah raised during the six seasons, five 

 families, two of eight and two of nine, and this 

 year she came home with twelve. What do^s 

 game protection mean? Protect the old duck, 

 and you can quickly figure out what the total 

 increase in six years will be. Delilah returned 

 for the siv'h lime and she raised these five 

 families. 1 h.nen'l seen her since .August. 

 The Drake's Bad Character. 



The Canada goose is the most faithful and 

 self-sacrificing bird on earth. I kept one for 



