WILD GEESE 139 



ging the females off their nests and driving them away. 

 It is rarely that they begin laying until three years old, 

 although I have known of one or two in recent years 

 which nested when two years old and raised young. The 

 first year wild geese lay four or five eggs, generally five, 

 and as they get older they will sometimes gradually in- 

 crease the number laid to six or eight eggs. 



"The period of incubation is from twenty-eight to thirty 

 days, depending somewhat on the weather. When 

 hatched fhe old goose keeps the goslings in the nest until 

 the morning of the second day, when she leads them out 

 and carefully guides them to where they can pick the 

 fresh grass or weeds. No feed is required for the goslings 

 at any time if there is a pasture or grass lawn over which 

 they can roam. While I 'feed them grain it is merely 

 to make the geese gentle and to teach them to stay about 

 closer. 



"All my young geese are pinioned when small. If this 

 IS done before the wing feathers begin to grow there is 

 scarcely any bleeding from the operation. There are 

 three periods each year in which the domesticated wild 

 geese are disposed to wander away. Each spring and 

 fall, as the flocks pass over in their migrations my birds 

 answer to the call of the wild. Gathering at one side of 

 the enclosure, they stretch their necks to the utmost. 

 Slowly they give out their gutteral notes, which gradually 

 are sounded faster and faster until finally, with discordant 

 cries and a beating of the air with their wings, they sweep 

 to the farther side of the pasture. Not deterred by the 

 failure to rise, they walk back and the performance is re- 

 peated again and again. 



"There is another period when they seem impelled to 



