THE CANADA GOOSE. 
115 
interbred with the domestic gray goose, producing a hybrid a 
little larger and duller colored than its wild parent. 
In Montana these birds are stated to build in the heavy tim¬ 
ber along the large streams, and to transport their young in their 
bills to the water, in this corresponding to the wood duck. Dr. 
Coues says ; “ I found the circumstance to be a. matter of com¬ 
mon information among the residents who expressed surprise 
that it was not generally known.” 
There are four different forms of gray goose, the Canada 
goose, Brauta canadensis; Hutchinson’s goose, Brauta canaden¬ 
sis hutchinsii; white cheeked goose, Brauta canadensis occiden- 
talis; cackling goose, Brauta canadensis minima. The two last 
named are exclusi ely Western, and the Hutchinson's goose is 
nearly so, while the Canada goose is the best known and most 
common. Its head, neck, rump, and tail are black ; a triangular 
white patch on each cheek meets under the throat; the upper and 
under tail coverts and lower belly are white ; the upper breast 
is grayish fading to white on the belly, while wings, sides and 
back or grayish brown with lighter colored tips. 
In an article in “ Field and Stream ” January, 1900 , a sports¬ 
man states that the full grown Canada goose often attains a 
weight of twelve to twenty pounds. This writer had on his re¬ 
cord one which weighed eighteen and a half pounds. The bird’s 
length is from thirty five to forty inches, its wing eighteen inch¬ 
es. With this extreme weight to propel through the air, how 
much more remarkable, then, their sustained flight! And what' 
strength must be in their wings ! Presumably Bryant had the 
wild goose in mind when he wrote: 
Whither, ’midst the falling dew. 
While glow the heavens with the last steps of day, 
Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue 
Thy solitary way! 
Vainly the fowler’s eye 
Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong, 
As, darkly painted on the crimson sky, 
Thy figure floats along. 
******* 
There is a Power whose care 
Teaches thy way along that pathless coast,— 
