222 The Water-fowl Family 



borders they have passed the night. Where one 

 flock alights the others follow, and soon the 

 ground is white. They feed among the wheat 

 stubble or on the young marsh-grass. The bor- 

 ders of a slough where they have fed looks as if 

 cut by a machine. About noon they go back to 

 the lake, and toward the middle of the afternoon 

 start again for the feeding-ground, which may be 

 a totally different locality from that of the morn- 

 ing, to return once more to the lake as the sun 

 sinks to rest. 



Snow geese are shy and difficult of approach, 

 but occasionally can be ridden upon from horse- 

 back, or even will allow a wagon to be driven 

 within range, especially if a heavy wind be taken 

 advantage of. Decoys seldom attract them unless 

 of their own kind. Passes sometimes offer excel- 

 lent shooting, and many are killed as they fly from 

 feeding-grounds on the stubble to neighboring 

 water. The food consists of water vegetables and 

 grasses of all kinds, berries, and grain when the 

 locality affords it. The flesh does not stand in 

 high repute, though in places the young birds are 

 prized. The snow goose bears domestication, and 

 there are numerous instances of its confinement. 

 In cases where barnyard geese are mated with it 

 the eggs are unproductive. Mr. Ross speaks of 

 an instance where a fur trader in the Red River 

 settlement domesticated a pair of these birds, one 



