Geese 



is to get a good view of them. But order somehow comes 

 speedily out of chaos once the birds are well launched in air. 

 Double ranks are formed, with the leader at the point where the 

 two lines converge, and the wedge moves on, far away if they 

 have been terrorized by firing, but only a few hundred yards if 

 they find there is no real ground for fear. 



Flocks of wild geese go and come in the United States from 

 September, when the young birds are able to join in the long 

 flights, until early spring, when the great majority go north to 

 nest. In some secluded marsh, by the shores of streams, or on 

 the open prairie, far from the habitations of hungry men, the 

 goose lays four or five pale buff eggs in a mass of sticks lined 

 with grass and feathers, and sits very closely, while the gander 

 keeps guard near by. An empty osprey's nest in a tree top, 

 or a cavity in some old stump, frequently contains these eggs; 

 but the goslings never return to the cradle once they have been 

 led to water, for they are good walkers and swimmers from the 

 start. After a thorough moult, which often makes the old birds 

 as incapable of flying as the goslings, the detached families gather 

 into flocks in September, when a few cold snaps in the Hudson 

 Bay region suggest the necessity for migrating to warmer climes. 

 On their arrival here they are very thin, worn out by the long 

 journey; but the Christmas goose, as every housekeeper knows, 

 is perhaps the fattest bird brought to her kitchen. 



Brant 



(Branta hernicla) 



Called also: BRENT; BRANT GOOSE; AND BARNACLE GOOSE 



Length — 26 inches. 



Male and Female — Head, neck, throat, and upper breast and 

 shoulders blackish, with a small patch of white streaks on 

 either side of neck, sometimes also on chin and lower eyelid ; 

 back brownish gray, the feathers margined with ashy ; "lower 

 breast ashy gray, ending abruptly at the line of black of the 

 upper breast; sides dark, but fading into white underneath; 

 much white around tail; bill and feet black. Female smaller 

 than gander. Immature birds have no white patch on neck, 

 and plumage above and below is barred or waved with reddish 

 brown. 



140 



