74 
CANADA GOOSE, 
CANADA GOOSE ANAS CANADENSIS.— Plate LXVII. Fig. 4 
L’Oye savage de Canada, Briss. vi. p. 272, 4. pi. 26. — L’Oie a cravatte. Buff. ix. 
p. 82 — Edw. pi. 151. — Arct. Zool. No. 471. — Catesby,\. pi. 92 — Lath. Syn^ 
iii. p. 450. — Beale's Museum^ No. 2704. 
ANSEE CANADENSIS.— YiEiLhOT.* 
Bernicla Canadensis, Boie. — Anser Canadensis, Bonap. Synop. p. 377. — North. Zool. 
ii. p. 468. — L. Outarde, French Canadians. — Bustard, Huds. JB. Settlers. 
This is the common wild goose of the United States, uni- 
versally known over the whole country ; whose regular peri- 
odical migrations are the sure signals of returning spring, or 
approaching winter. The tracts of their vast migratory jour- 
neys are not confined to the sea-coast, or its vicinity. In their 
aerial voyages to and from the north, these winged pilgrims pass 
over the interior on both sides of the mountains, as far west, 
at least, as the Osage river, and I have never yet visited any 
* The appellation “ geese” will mark, in a general way, the birds and form 
to which Anser should be generically applied. They are all of large size, possess 
in part the gait of a gallinaceous bird, are gregarious, except during the breed- 
ing season, mostly migratory, and are formed more for extensive flight than for 
the life of a truly aquatic feeding and diving bird. Most of them during winter, 
at times leave the sea or lakes, and feed on the pastures, or, when to be had, on 
the newly sprung grains, while some feed entirely on aquatic plants and ani- 
mals. The Canada goose is easily domesticated, and it is probable that most of 
the specimens killed in Great Britain have escaped from preserves ; it is found, 
however, on the Continent of Europe, and stragglers may occasionally occur. 
On the beautiful piece of water at Gosford tlouse, the seat of the Earl of 
Wemyss, Haddingtonshire, this and many other water birds rear their young 
freely. I have never seen any artificial piece of water so beautifully adapted for 
the domestication and introduction of every kind of water fowl which will bear 
the climate of Great Britain. Of very large extent, it is embossed in beautiful 
shrubbery, perfectly recluse, and, even in the nearly constant observance of 
a resident family, several exotic species seem to look on it as their own. The 
Canada and Egyptian geese both had young when I visited it, and the lovely 
Anas (Dendi'onessa) sponsa seemed as healthy as if in her native waters. — En. 
