142 GEESE 



Manitoba, Soper (1941), says: "When this feathered tide sweeps in, it is 

 as though some great torrent has been unleashed. A deluge pours into 

 Manitoba flock after flock, composed of myriads of individuals. With 

 what eagerness they come, filled with an unconquerable urge to push 

 northward! Accompanying this bold advance is a deafening clamour of 

 wild voices thrilling with buoyant determination and high adventure. 

 The movement continues day and night. Once momentum is gained, it 

 never slackens until finally it comes to a temporary halt as the last of 

 the multitudes rest and feed on the appointed meeting grounds. This 

 great gathering of the clans of the plains chiefly west and northwest of 

 Winnipeg continues for two or three weeks, or sometimes a month, ac- 

 cording to season; then another stirring event takes place as the vast 

 flocks, in successive groups, leave for James Bay and the Arctic. We be- 

 lieve that, just prior to this departure, southern Manitoba holds prac- 

 tically all the Blue Geese in existence, in addition to incalculable 

 numbers of Lesser Snow and other geese. . . . There is in my possession 

 a photograph taken west of Winnipeg of a distant mobilization of geese 

 rising in a compact body from the ground. The entire flock was esti- 

 mated to contain at least half a million geese, the great majority of which 

 were Blues. . . . The Winnipeg district is evidently a focal point for these 

 wild geese, whose flyways converge upon the middle of the continent 

 during the migration from Louisiana to the Arctic." 



While flying, as well as feeding, the Blue and Snow Geese are in- 

 variably noisy, their voices mingling with expressions of great variety. 

 A hoarse 'honk' or a high pitched 'quack' is typical, while a familiar 

 call .... was an excited yapping or 'barking' almost similar to that of a 

 small dog. This, with shrill, falsetto cries, was most commonly heard 

 when large numbers held forth on their feeding grounds. One's general 

 impression of these conclaves is that of a body given over to gossip and 

 extreme sociability under the stress of great excitement." 



By the time that the Blue Geese begin their nesting duties the num- 

 bers of associated Snow Geese have begun to diminish; they, with the 

 Lesser Canada Geese and the Brants, disappear into the mysterious lands 

 beyond the northern horizon. The theory that the Blue Goose was merely 

 a colour phase of the Lesser Snow Goose was held for a long time, but 

 Soper, after investigating the matter on the breeding-grounds, concluded 

 that they are distinct species. The two species may interbreed occasion- 

 ally, but in no single instance did he find a Blue and a Snow Goose 

 mated with each other on Baffin Island. On migration the two species 

 unquestionably co-mingle, and on the breeding grounds of the Blue 

 Goose, Snows are found in association, but at Bowman Bay the ratio of 

 Blues to Snows at that time is about 30 or 40 to 1. The main breeding 

 grounds of the Snow Geese lie still further north. 



These geese are voracious feeders. On their breeding grounds, "over 

 large areas in valley bottoms and around ponds surrounded by grassy 

 ground and tussocks, the birds so tore up the soil and herbage as to im- 

 part to the surface the appearance of having been intensely cultivated. 

 Some grounds were almost denuded of vegetation .... Their chief food, 



