CANADA GOOSE. 
439 
black. Patch on throat, extending up on sides of head, upper tail coverts, posterior portions below, back of tibia, white. 
Iris, brown; feet and bill, black. Young. Similar to the adult but paler. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
Readily known by the large size, absence of any conspicuous white markings on lower neck and cold's as described. 
Distributed, in summer, from Canada, northward; wintering from New Jersey, southward. 
DIMENSIONS. 
Average measurements of specimens from North America. Length, 35'00; stretch, 62'70; wing, 17*62; tail, 610; bill, 
2'50; tarsus, 3'72. Longest specimen, 38-00; greatest extent of wing, 65'50; longest wing, 19'25; tail, 7*00; bill, 2'80; tarsus, 
4 10. Shortest specimen, 32'00; smallest extent of wing, 59'90; shortest wing, 16'00; tail, 5'20; bill, 2'25; tarsus, 3'35. 
DESCRIPTION OF NESTS AND EGGS. 
Nests, placed on the ground in marshy places, composed of sticks, weeds, etc. Eggs, six to ten in number, elliptical 
in form, and dirty-white in color. Dimensions from 2'25x 3'40 to 2'35 x 3'50. 
HABITS. 
For upward of two hundred years, the exploits of the Canada Geese have been so re¬ 
peatedly recorded both in story and in song, that it is extremely difficult to write anything 
new concerning them. Yet their migrations to and from their northern breeding grounds, 
always prove interesting to (he inhabitants, over whose heads they pass semi-annually, the 
most casual observer, never failing to glance upward, when he hears their sonorous honks, 
to note the wedge-shaped flock, or long line, of large birds, hurrying onward with more than 
railroad speed, toward their destination. The wild Geese have learned wisdom by long ex¬ 
perience, and now seldom alight on our east coast in numbers; thus it sounds marvelous 
to hear the stories of the vast multitudes which formally gathered along our shores. These 
Geese are, with us, the shyest of birds when in flocks, yet when one becomes separated 
from the main body, it appears bewildered and apparently loses all fear of man. Once, 
when I was a boy, a single Goose, evidently lost, sailed several times around our meadow, 
in Newtonville, in which I was standing, once or twice passing within ten or twelve feet 
of my head. Some years later, on the day before Christmas, I was informed by a neigh¬ 
bor, that there was a large bird in his meadow, and taking my gun, I walked within thirty 
yards of a large, male, wild Gdose which was standing in an open field, and shot it. A 
few years ago, I surprised one in afield near the sea-shore, late in November, and walked 
within a few yards of it before it flew. Just previous to all these occasions, a thick fog 
had prevailed, during which the Geese had evidently lost their reckoning. The Canada 
Geese are abundant in southern waters during winter, from the Carolinas to Northern Flor¬ 
ida, for although they are so rare on the east coast of this hitter named State, that I nev¬ 
er saw one there, yet I have found them very common about Cedar Keys, where, however, 
they are as shy as they are in the North. 
It is highly probable, that before the general settlement of New England, the Canada 
Geese bred from Massachusetts, northward, but now they are confined to the wilder por¬ 
tions of Canada, Labrador, and the adjacent islands, and so on to the North Pole. When 
I was on the Magdalen Islands, certain inaccessible tracts of marshes, already described, 
were pointed out to me as breeding grounds of the Geese, but I scarcely think that these 
birds can occur in any numbers there, in summer, as I did not see a single specimen dur¬ 
ing my visit. In habits, both this and the succeeding species behave much like the do¬ 
mesticated birds. 
