The Canada Geese 



Authorities. — Gambel {Anser canadensis), Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., ser. 2, 

 i., 1849, p. 225 (Ca.Ul.) ; Belding, Zoe, vol. iii., 1892, pp. 99, 100 (occurrence in Calif.); 

 Ray, Condor, vol. xiv., 1912, p. 67, figs, (nesting at Lake Tahoe; desc. habits, nest and 

 eggs); Swarth, Univ. Calif. Publ. Zool., vol. xii., 1913, p. I, figs, (occurrence in Calif.; 

 crit., desc, meas., etc.). 



HONK, honk — honk, honk! What a stirring sound is that which 

 summons us from whatever task indoors, and hurries us out hatless, 

 breathless, into the crisp March air to behold a company of wild geese 

 passing forward into the frosty North ! Honk, honk! We think madly 

 of our gun upstairs, for the geese are provokingly near, and we hear the 

 thrilling swish of the low-sweeping wings; but we take it out in great 

 boasts to our similarly hatless neighbor, of what we could have done if 

 the gun had been put together and we had known that those foolish 

 geese were coming right over town. And when the great birds become 

 a row of trailing points on the northern sky, a fever of strange unrest 



burns within our veins, 



and we wonder through 

 what ancestral folly our 

 wings were clipped, and 

 our race condemned to 

 unceasing barnyard 

 toil. 



The Canada Goose 

 has only two cardinal 

 points on his compass, 

 North and South; and 

 unlike most migrants, he 

 does not go by the map, 

 nor follow favorite paths 

 through the air, but flies 

 straight over hill and 

 dale, city and hamlet 

 alike, until the goal is 

 reached, or until the 

 weather discourages 

 further movement for a 

 time. The geese move 

 usually at a considerable height, forming open V-shaped figures, with 

 the oldest or strongest gander in the lead at the apex; or else in single 

 oblique lines. Each bird demands as clear a field as possible, and this 

 is best secured by an arrangement which allows each goose to look over 

 the wing of the one next preceding, right or left, according to the branch 



1859 



Taken in Washington 



CANADA GEESE 



DOMESTICATED BIRDS HATCHED FROM WILD EGGS 



Photo by the Auliior 



