The Canadian Field-Naturalist 



VOL. XXXVI 



OTTAWA, ONT., MAY, 1922 



No. 5 



ADVENTURES WITH THE CANADA GOOSE 



By p. a. Taverner 



{Published by permission of the Director of the Victoria Memorial Museum, Ottawa, Ont.) 



OUR old friend, Jack Miner, of Canada Goose 

 fame, professes unbounded admiration for 

 the moral and mental excellencies of the Canada 

 Goose. While his superlatives in this connection 

 may have a flavor of the exaggeration of enthu- 

 siasm, it is not at all certain that Jack does not 

 understand goose nature better than do some of 

 us Doubting Thomas skeptics. Certainly Canada 

 Geese make model spouses and most devoted 

 parents. A drake mates only for the occasion, 

 and enjoys a sensuous honeymoon, but refuses the 

 further responsibilities of his actions, and leads a 

 care-free existence with other gay bachelors and 

 grass widowers in stag-parties on the open lakes 

 and marshes while his conscientious duck alone 

 shoulders the drab, exacting duties of raising the 

 brood to maturity. Quite otherwise is it with the 

 gander of Branta canadensis; he mates for life, 

 standing watch and ward over mate, eggs and 

 young, co-operates in protection, unites in self- 

 sacrifice and holds to his mate till death doth them 

 part. Some of the following experiences go a way 

 in substantiating Mr. Miner's oft-expressed 

 opinions. 



It was on Cypress Lake, Saskatchewan, in the 

 summer of 192L We were in a rowboat with an 

 outboard motor when we saw a family of geese, 

 the pair of adults and four downy young but a 

 few days from the egg, on the lake ahead. When 

 they became aware that our progress was carrying 

 us uncomfortably near, they edged towards the 

 shore, slowly and openly at first, apparently not 

 appreciating the unusual swiftness of our ap- 

 proach. Then they put on more speed, and 

 arranged themselves in a long single file, one 

 parent leading, the other bringing up the rear, 

 swimming low, and both with their long necks 

 outstretched and laid down flat on the water, 

 making themselves as inconspicuous as possible. 

 The young, coaxed from ahead and urged from 

 behind, paddled along vigorously between, one 



close behind the other. From our low and distant 

 point of view, the effect was interesting. They 

 looked like a floating stick. Certainly they would 

 not impress the casual eye as a family of Canada 

 Geese and if we had not first seen them in a 

 more characteristic pose they would undoubtedly 

 have been passed without recognition. If our 

 speed had been derived from oars or paddles, it 

 would have taken a considerable chase to have 

 caught them, but the engine gave us an unfair 

 advantage and one they had not counted on, for 

 in a moment we were upon them. 



We tried desperately to get the graflex to bear 

 upon them whilst they were in this peculiar lock- 

 step formation. But even a long focus lens 

 demands close quarters to make an appreciable 

 image of even so large a bird as a goose and just 

 before we were ready to take the shot the birds 

 realized that concealment had failed and that 

 other tactics were necessary. The parents 

 raised their heads and, flapping their wings, 

 endeavoured to get a higher burst of speed out 

 of their charges. Failing in this, the gander,* 

 calling loudly and excitedly, splashed off ahead 

 for a few yards, looked back to see that the 

 goslings could not follow, and flapped helplessly 

 on over the water. The goose hesitated a mo- 

 ment and then joined her mate whilst the young- 

 sters, still little more than fluffy balls of down, 

 bunched irresolutely and then one and all dove 

 and disappeared from sight. During the next 

 few minutes the old birds scurried back and forth 

 over the water in our immediate vicinity, playing 

 the old familiar broken-wing deceit to decoy us 

 away, occasionally rising and flying a few hundred 

 yards, only to circle back to renew the attempts 

 to coax us off, all the time honking loudly in a 

 high shrill key that revealed the agony of their 



*.\s I have no means of determining the sex of the parent 

 birds, it is assumed for the purposes^of this story that the 

 gander led. 



