BIRDS OF NEW YORK 23 1 



distinctly white; lower belly and crissum white; bill and feet black; iris 

 brown; tail usually contains 18-20 feathers. 



Length 35-37 inches; extent 60-65; wing 18-20; tail 7; tarsus 3-3.6; 

 bill 2; weight 8-14 pounds. 



Field marks. The wild goose does not always fly in a wedge-shaped 

 flock as is often asserted, but they are usually seen in flocks and their large 

 size combined with their slow, measured wing strokes, and the long black 

 neck with its white throat patch, as well as the white upper and under tail 

 coverts, serve as distinguishing marks of this species. Its loud triimpetlike 

 honks which are almost always heard as they pass over, is a sound well 

 known to all gunners and country people. 



Distribution and migration. The wild goose is probably the best 

 known of all the waterfowl in New York State. Its migrations herald the 

 approach of spring as well as of winter in all portions of the State. It is 

 fairly common throughout the winter along the Long Island coast and 

 frequently remains through the winter in western New York, as it did on 

 Canandaigua lake in the winters of 1905-6 and 1906-7. It is fairly com- 

 mon as a transient in almost every county in the State, but rarely descends 

 from its migration flight for any extended sojourn, except in the vicinity of 

 large bodies of water, where it can rest without being molested. Along 

 Long Island it is abundant in migration time from the loth to the 30th of 

 March, remaining till the 20th of April, sometimes as late as the 7th of 

 May. In the fall it has been noted as early as September 8th, but usually 

 makes its appearance from the loth to the 20th of October and the greater 

 numbers pass southward from the ist to the 20th of December. In the 

 interior of New York the migratory flight often begins as early as the 20th 

 or 24th of February, but usually occurs from the 4th to the i6th of March, 

 the species being commonest in the early part of April and passing north- 

 ward from April 20th to May 8th. In the fall it makes its appearance from 

 the 6th to the 13th of October and usually disappears from the 15th to the 

 30th of November. The principal summer home of the Canada goose is 

 from Minnesota to Oregon and northward to the Yukon and northern 

 Canada to the limit of trees. It breeds in northern Ontario, Quebec, 

 Newfoundland and casually in Massachusetts and Vermont. No breeding 



