CANADA GOOSE. 377 



and come nearer the hovel. The sportsman keeps motionless and 

 on his knees, with his gun cocked, and never fires till he has seen 

 the eyes of the geese. He fires as they are going from him, then 

 picks up another gun that lies by him and discharges that. The 

 geese killed he sets up on sticks, as if alive, to decoy others ; he 

 also makes artificial birds for the same purpose. In a good day (for 

 they fly in very uncertain and unequal numbers) a single Indian will 

 kill two hundred. Notwithstanding every sort of goose has a differ- 

 ent call, yet the Indians are admirable in their imitation of every one." 



The geese, on their return to the North, pass through the East- 

 ern States in the months of April and May, early or late, accord- 

 ing to the state of the weather. When in our waters they feed 

 on the leaves, blades, and berries of different marine plants, and 

 the roots of the sedge which grows so abundantly on the salt 

 marshes. Their flight is heavy and laborious, and in the form of 

 a triangle, the flock being led by an old gander. When wounded, 

 they swim and dive with great facility, going long distances under 

 the water. When taken alive, they are easily domesticated, and 

 will breed readily with the tame goose. It is a very common 

 circumstance to see flocks of these geese entirely domesticated in 

 the neighborhood of the waters which they frequented in their 

 original state of freedom. Although they may have become quite 

 tame, and perhaps have reared a brood or two, they are all apt to ex- 

 hibit symptoms of uneasiness as the period for migration approaches, 

 and will sometimes fly off with the wild ones that they hear honking 

 overhead. The Canadian goose is domesticated in England and 

 France, and is considered superior to the common gray goose. 



Many plans are resorted to by the shooters on our coast to 

 decoy these wary fowl within gunshot, and none more successful 

 than that of imitating their bankings, which most of them can do 

 to perfection. 



Domestic geese are also used to decoy the wild ones flying over- 

 head ; and they not unfrequently entice them from great heights 

 in the air to alight among them, supposing them to be some of 

 their own companions feeding in safety below. 



