Fig. 2.—Lesser snow and blue geese in a cornfield on the Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge in northwest Missouri. 
changing habits of these geese and increasing kills made by hunters at points along the migration routes emphasize the need for 
better information about the origins of such populations. 
of poultry. Fortunately the primary feathers from these 
geese, which were sacrificed, were saved, partly because 
it was noted at the time that they had not developed 
normally, being more curved and “‘foreshortened” than 
feathers of normal wild birds. Therefore it was of in- 
terest to note that the feathers of all three experimental 
groups of geese revealed much lower contents of most 
of the minerals we analyzed for than were found in 
any wild populations thus far studied. These findings 
suggest that an ultimate of economy in the design of 
poultry rations may have been approached, but the 
data also raise the question of whether or not the 
highly enriched diets of wild birds could play a role 
in their tremendous vigor and recuperative powers. 
To answer the many questions which this prelimi- 
nary study raises, all factors in the nutrient chain in the 
ecosystem will have to be studied. For a number of 
localities in the Arctic we have analyzed samples of 
the soil, plant food, feathers, and feces. These analyses 
are providing insights unlikely to be obtained by studies 
of caged birds alone. 
The 
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