jg5 THE CANADA GOOSE. 



pany. When I left Henderson, my flock of Geese was given away, and I 

 have not since heard how it has fared with them. 



On one of m}r shooting excursions in the same neighbourhood, I chanced 

 one day to kill a wild Canada Goose, which, on my return, was sent to 

 the kitchen. The cook, while dressing it, found in it an egg ready for being 

 laid, and brought it to me. It was placed under a common hen, arid in due 

 time hatched. Two years afterwards the bird thus raised, mated with a male 

 of the same species, and produced a brood. This Goose was so gentle that 

 she would suffer any person to caress her, and would readily feed from the 

 hand. She was smaller than usual, but in every other respect as perfect as 

 any I have ever seen. At the period of migration she shewed by her move- 

 ments less desire to fly off than any other I have known; but her mate, who 

 had once been free, did not participate in this apathy. 



I have not been able to discover why many of those birds which I have 

 known to have been reared from the egg, or to have been found when very 

 young and brought up in captivity, were so averse to reproduce, unless they 

 were naturally sterile. I have seen several that had been kept for more than 

 eight years, without ever mating during that period, while other individuals 

 had young the second spring after their birth. I have also observed that an 

 impatient male would sometimes abandon the females of his species, and pay 

 his addresses to a common tame Goose, by which a brood would in due time 

 be brought up, and would thrive. That this tardiness is not the case in the 

 wild state I feel pretty confident, for I have observed having broods of their 

 own many individuals which, by their size, the dulness of their plumage, 

 and such other marks as are known to the practical ornithologist, I judged 

 to be not more than fifteen or sixteen months old. I have therefore thought 

 that in this, as in many other species, a long series of years is necessary for 

 counteracting the original wild and free nature which has been given them; 

 and indeed it seems probable that our attempts to domesticate many species 

 of wild fowls, which would prove useful to mankind, have often been aban- 

 doned in despair, when a few years more of constant care might have pro- 

 duced the desired effect. 



The Canada Goose, although immediately after the full development of its 

 young it becomes gregarious, does not seem to be fond of the company of 

 any other species. Thus, whenever the White-fronted Goose, the Snow 

 Goose, the Brent Goose, or others, alight in the same ponds, it forces them 

 to keep at a respectful distance; and during its migrations I have never 

 observed a single bird of any other kind in its ranks. 



The flight of this species of Goose is firm, rather rapid, and capable of 

 being protracted to a great extent. When once high in the air, they advance 

 with extreme steadiness and regularity of motion. In rising from the water 



