130 GEESE 



Bent (1925) says: "The food of the Snow Goose is largely vegetable, 

 in fact almost wholly so during the greater part of its sojourn in its win- 

 ter home. In the spring this consists largely of winter wheat and other 

 sprouting grains and grasses; in the fall the stubble fields are favorite 

 feeding grounds, where large flocks are known to congregate regularly." 

 Coues (1874) says: "Various kinds of ordinary grass form a large part 

 of this bird's food, at least during their winter residence in the United 

 States. They gather it precisely as tame geese are wont to do. Flocks 

 alight upon a meadow or plain, and pass over the ground in broken ar- 

 ray, cropping to either side as they go, with the peculiar tweak of the 



bill and quick jerk of the neck familiar 

 to all who have watched the barn-yard 

 birds when similarly engaged. The 

 short, turfy grasses appear to be highly 

 relished; this explains the frequent 

 presence of the birds in fields at a dis- 

 tance from water. They also eat the 

 bulbous roots and soft, succulent culms 

 * of aquatic plants. In securing these 

 the tooth-like processes of the bill are 

 brought into special service." 



The flight of the Snow Goose is 

 usually high in the air in long diag- 

 onal lines or in V-shaped flocks, the 

 birds generally uttering a chorus of shrill, falsetto cries. Grinnell 

 (1901) describes migrating Snow Geese as follows: "The spectacle of a 

 flock of these white geese flying is a very beautiful one. Sometimes they 

 perform remarkable evolutions on the wing, and if seen at a distance 

 look like so many snowflakes being whirled hither and thither by the 

 wind. Scarcely less beautiful is the sight which may often be seen in the 

 Rocky Mountain region during the migration. As one rides along under 

 the warm October sun he may have his attention attracted by sweet, 

 faint, distant sounds, interrupted at first, and then gradually coming 

 nearer and clearer, yet still only a murmur; the rider hears it from 

 above, before, behind, and all around, faintly sweet and musically dis- 

 cordant, always softened by distance, like the sound of far-off harps, of 

 sweet bells jangled, of the distant baying of mellow-voiced hounds. Look- 

 ing up into the sky above him he sees the serene blue far on high flecked 

 with tiny white moving shapes, which seem like snowflakes drifting la- 

 zily across the azure sky; and down to earth, falling, falling, falling, 

 come the musical cries of the little wavies that are journeying toward the 

 southland." 



Regarding the start of the migration of these geese from their sum- 

 mer homes, Barnston (1862) says: "They are deliberate and judicious 

 in their preparation for their great flight southward and make their ar- 

 rangements in a very businesslike manner. Leaving off feeding in the 

 swamps for a day or more, they keep out with the retreating ebb tide, re- 



