THE FLIGHT OF "WILD GEESE. 211 



The flight of wild geese is always, excepting in fogs, 

 very elevated ; their motion is smooth, accompanied 

 with little rustling, and the play of the wdng seems 

 never to exceed two or three inches. The regularity in 

 which they are marshalled makes one suppose that they 

 possess an intelligence superior to other birds, which 

 migrate in disorderly bodies. The arrangement strictly 

 observed by the geese is at once calculated to keep the 

 ranks entire, to break the resistance of the air, and to 

 diminish the exertion of the bird. They form two 

 oblique lines like the letter V, or if their number be 

 small, only one line ; frequently they amount to forty 

 or fifty, each keeping his rank with admirable exact- 

 ness. The chief, who occupies the point of the angle, 

 and first cleaves the air, retires when fatigued to the 

 rear, and the rest by turns assume the station of the 

 van. Pliny mentions the wonderful harmony and regu- 

 larity which prevail in the flight of wild geese, and 

 remarks that, unlike the cranes and the storks, which 

 jom-ney in the obsciu-ity of the night, the geese are seen 

 pursuing their route in the day. 



Geese seem to be general inhabitants of the globe. On 

 the American continent they are found from Hudson's 

 Bay, where they breed in the plains along the coast, moult 

 in July, and being then unable to fly, are easily taken or 

 killed by the inhabitants. Some are reserved alive and fed 

 on corn for winter stock, and it is singidar that the young 

 ones seldom learn how to feed on the corn unless some 

 of the old ones are kept with them. They frequent 

 South Carolina during mnter, their attraction being the 

 rice grounds, where they glean the droppings of the 

 harvest. The greylag is the origin of domestic geese. 

 It is the only species the Britons could take young and 



