THE CANADA GOOSE. 189 
aware of the ease with which they could be followed by their tracks over 
. the treacherous surface. 
The Canada Geese are fond of returning regularly to the place which 
they have chosen for resting in, and this they continue to do until they find 
themselves greatly molested while there. In parts of the country where 
they are little disturbed, they seldom go farther than the nearest sandbank 
or the dry shore of the places in which they feed ; but in other parts they 
retire many miles to spots of greater security, and of sucli extent as will 
enable them to discover danger long before it can reach them. When such 
a place is found, and proves secure, many flocks resort to it, but alight apart 
in separate groups. Thus, on some of the great sand-bars of the Ohio, the 
Mississippi, and other large streams, congregated flocks, often amounting 
to a thousand individuals, may be seen at the approach of night, which they 
spend there, lying on the sand within a few feet of each other, every flock 
having its own sentinel. In the dawn of next morning they rise on their 
feet, arrange and clean their feathers, perhaps walk to the water to drink, 
and then depart for their feeding-grounds. 
When I first went to the Falls of the Ohio, the rocky shelvings of which 
are often bare for fully half a mile, thousands of Wild Geese of this species 
rested there at night. The breadth of the various channels that separate 
the rocky islands from either shore, and the rapidity of the currents which 
sweep along them, render this place of resort more secure than most others. 
The Wild Geese still betake themselves to these islands during winter for the 
same purpose, but their number has become very small ; and so shy are these 
birds at present in the neighbourhood of Louisville, that the moment they 
are disturbed at the ponds where they go to teed each morning, were it but 
by the report of a single gun, they immediately return to their rocky asy- 
lums. Even there, however, they are by no means secure, for it not unfre- 
quently happens that a flock alights within half gunshot of a person conceal- 
ed in a pile of drifted wood, whose aim generally proves too true for their 
peace. Nay, I knew a gentleman, who had a large mill opposite Eock 
Island, and who used to kill the poor Geese at the distance of about a 
quarter of a mile, by means of a small cannon heavily charged with rifle 
bullets ; and, if I recollect truly, Mr. Tarascon in this manner not unfre- 
quently obtained a dozen or more Geese at a shot. This was done at dawn, 
when the birds were busily engaged in trimming their plumage with tho 
view of flying off in a few minutes to their feeding-grounds. .This war of 
extermination could not last long : the Geese deserted the fatal rock, and 
the great gun of the mighty miller was used only for a few weeks. . 
While on the water, the Canada Goose moves with considerable grace, 
and in its general deportment resembles the Wild Swan, to which I think it 
