39 
“YA HONK! YA HONK! YA HONK!” 
The supreme indifference of the Canada Goose to the 
cities and other slight blemishes on the continent he 
noisily surveys in spring and fall makes his passing 
doubly impressive. Sometimes in the multitude of 
noises against which the sense of hearing fortifies 
itself he brings his aligned flock quite near before 
his advance is detected, but he holds the entranced 
gase until he has vanished slowly into the clear sky 
or thin horizon clouds, while the ear is still strained, 
hungry for the faint, fading, yet penetrating resonance 
of inspiring calls. He has grown more wary as man 
has grown more eagerly destructive, and instead of 
conveniently encompassing the continent and widely 
varying his summer residence and southern tours he 
moves determinedly in spring to the remote north, 
nesting by the interior waters of Labrador or the 
region west of Hudson Bay. 
These magnificent birds yield reluctantly to man's 
encroachment. They still make bold to assert their 
prior claim to the prairie sloughs where the plough 
is relentlessly encroaching. In the warm, sheltered 
mountain lakes on the Pacific slope they still take 
advantage of the free choice of location afforded by 
