Snow goose

“ Thus, whenever the White-fronted Goose, the Snow Goose, the Brent Goose, or others, alight in the same ponds, it forces them to keep at a respectful distance; and during its migrations I have never observed a single bird of any other kind in its ranks.
The flight of this species of Goose is firm, rather rapid, and capable of being protracted to a great extent. When once high in the air, they advance with extreme steadiness and regularity of motion. In rising from the water or from the ground, they usually run a few feet with outspread wings ”

“ The Snow Goose affords good eating when young and fat; but the old Ganders are tough and stringy. Those that are procured along the sea-shores, as they feed on shell-fish, fry and marine plants, have a rank taste, which, however suited to the palate of the epicure, I never could relish. ”

“ It is not less curious that, during the whole of the winter, these Geese remain equally divided, even if found in the same localities; and although young and old are often seen to repose on the same sand-bar, the flocks keep at as great a distance as possible.
The Snow Goose in the grey state of its plumage is very abundant in winter, about the mouths of the Mississippi, as well as on all the muddy and grassy shores of the bays and inlets of the Gulf of Mexico, as far as the Texas, and probably still farther to the south-west. ”

“ We had not believed the usually despised goose could be so beautiful a bird. These geese were as white as snow, had backs and wings covered with long curling feathers like ostrich plumes, and had bright pink bills and feet; but for their unfortunate voices they might have set up for swans. Our dear birds, however, did not approve of being summarily torn from the paternal pond and packed in a basket, so they hissed and cackled all the rest of the day in a thoroughly goose-like and provoking manner. ”

“ The white goose here mentioned is probably the snow-goose; upon which compare Nuttall, Mass. Ornith., Water-Birds, p. 344. Josselyn (Voyages, p. 100) says the brant and the gray goose “are best meat; the white are lean and tough, and live a long time; whereupon the proverb, ‘Older than a white goose:’” which is not supported by Wood or later writers. The snow-goose has become much less frequent with us since the settlement of the country. The great grey goose of Wood is our well-known Canada goose.
[39] This was the best that our author could say of the eagles of New England. ”

“ Audubon if there were any birds here before the settlers came. He will know; he doesn't go round all the time with his head in the clouds, as you do. You don't even know how old a snow-goose has to be before it turns from gray to white. And you really ought to know that, because you are a goose yourself. I saw a pure white snow-goose the other day on the pond back of Cedar House, and when the snow-goose comes, then winter is here, and it isn't long till Christmas. ”

“ America possesses by far the greatest wealth of Anserine forms. Beside others, presently to be mentioned, its northern portions are the home of all the species of snow-geese belonging to the genus Chen. The first of these is C. hyperboreus, the snow-goose proper, a bird of large size, and when adult of a pure white, except the primaries, which are black. ”

“ Nor need they fear to plunge into the very heart of the Arctic zone, for the flight of a goose being forty or fifty miles an hour, these birds may breed in the remotest northern solitude, and in a few hours, on a fall of deep autumn snow, convey themselves by their swiftness of wing to better feeding-grounds. ”

“ Common summer resident; both sides of the range; breeds from plains to 10,000 feet; a beautiful bird; author's observations given in Chapter VII.
169. Lesser snow goose. Chen hyperborea. Migrant and winter resident; not common; breeds far north.
169a. Greater snow goose. Chen hyperborea nivalis. Rare migrant; only two records; the eastern form, which does not come regularly as far west as Colorado.
171a. American white-fronted goose. Anser albifrons gambeli. Rare migrant; breeds far northward. ”

“ When on their long migrations the geese all fly very high, and generally in long lines or triangles. But when they reach the north country, where they hope to spend the summer, they fly low over the ground. They seem to be then on the lookout for feeding grounds and suitable locations for nest building. If undisturbed, they speedily break up in pairs. They arrive very hungry, and so spend some days in heavy feeding on the peculiar many-jointed grass, called goose grass, the Indian name of which is Niskeanuskwa. ”

“ A simple northern direction leads, according to the point of departure, to very different regions, sometimes to Siberia, sometimes to Spitzbergen and Lapland, sometimes to the northern islands of Iceland, Greenland, and what others shall I say? But no such vague destination will do for the goose. The bird must return to its native country, of which it retains an ineffaceable remembrance, just as a man, through all the shifts and changes of his stirring life, preserves the cherished memory of his own village. The goose, then, must again find the sea whose murmur it listened to in youth. ”

“ Body brown above, gray below, with black head, neck, tail, and long feathers of the wings, the tail white at the roots above and below, the head with a large white patch like a napkin folded under the chin.
Bill and feet black, the toes webbed like a Duck's or tame Goose's; but the wild Canada Goose is not the kind that our tame Geese came from.
A Citizen of North America, and a great traveller in spring and fall, when flocks fly high overhead in a wedge-shaped figure or in a long line, with one old Gander leading, and all crying "honk, honk, honk!" ”

“ Know that in its wild state [118] the goose is an impassioned traveler, even more so than its companion, the duck. Influenced by considerations of convenience, the latter often nests in our latitudes; the goose is more given to mistrust and passes us by. For the laying of its eggs it must seek regions as near the Pole as possible, regions of never-melting ice. The desolate wastes of Greenland and Spitzbergen, and, still farther north, the islands lost in the fogs of the polar ocean, are the regions whither they feel bound to return every summer. ”

“ How they strive and tug, biting, and striking with their wings! and how their feathers fly about! Exhausted, abashed, and mortified, the presumptuous intruder retreats in disgrace;—there he lies almost breathless on the sand!
Such are the conflicts of these ardent lovers, and so full of courage and of affection towards their females are they, that the approach of a male invariably ruffles their tempers as well as their feathers. No sooner has the goose laid her first egg, than her bold mate stands almost erect by her side, watching even the rustling sound of the breeze. ”

“ 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 is nearly allied. If wounded in the wing, they sometimes dive to a small depth, and make off with astonishing address, always in the direction of the shore, the moment they reach which, you see them sneaking through the grass or bushes, their necks extended an inch or so above the ground, and in this manner proceeding so silently, that, unless closely watched, they are pretty sure to escape. ”

“ To the east he heard the decoy-calls of Creamer and Davies, and, somewhere between himself and them, the low, questioning calls of the wished-for geese.
"They are near us somewhere, Kennedy," he whispered, "and, I guess, coming in to our decoys. Don't fire until I tell you. Here they come. No, they sheer off. Yes, there's one scaling down; there's another. They're all coming. We've got them now."
The goose is far from being the silly fowl which popular belief supposes him to be, even when tamed and subdued, and, in a state of nature, is one of the most wary of birds. ”

“ This "catching up" with spring is habitual in species that winter south of the United States and in most of the northern species that winter in the Gulf States. To this rule there appear to be only six exceptions—the Canada goose, the mallard, the pintail, the crow, the red-winged blackbird, and the robin. ”

“ Just a common Wild Goose of North America. In the spring and fall you will see great flocks of us flying overhead, an old Gander in the lead, crying honk, honk as loud as he can. Our nests are only simple hollows in the sand, on the shores of lakes and rivers, around which are placed a few sticks and twigs, the five eggs laid on a layer of gray down.
"You're a Goose."
That's a polite way some people have of calling another stupid, but there are Geese and Geese as well as men and men. ”

“ They are neither good hatchers nor good layers, the best breeds rarely giving more than thirty eggs a year. But they are hardy and healthy and do not die off like young chickens. They can bear cold easily, and though a shelter is made for them in winter, they always sleep in the open air in the summer.
The goose is a strong bird and can strike a hard [191] blow with its wing. ”

“ When feeding they walk slowly uphill, picking up the tender blades of grass and young shoots of plants, occasionally stopping to snatch up a certain bulbous root of which they seem very fond. If they reach the summit of the hill, after remaining stationary for some time, they fly off to another quarter, alighting some distance down, and again picking their way upwards. When walking, they erect their tails, have a rather ungainly gait, and at a little distance present something the appearance of a large grey Goose. ”

“ Memotas went out and found a couple of geese which he brought into the nest. He and Sam were quite proud of having killed the first. In the meantime, with the increase of the wind there was an increase in the number of the passing flocks. And now soon they began to be distinctly visible, and the firing became quite frequent. Of course, a good many shots were lost, as it is no easy matter to hit a flying goose, large as it is. No experienced hunter thinks of firing directly at a goose that is flying by him, or even overhead. ”

“ Anser cinereus, the Grey-Lag, which nests in North Scotland and as far south as Spain and Kashgaria, ranges from Iceland to China, the Eastern race being called A. rubrirostris; A. albifrons, the White-fronted Goose, is found in Britain and most Palaearctic countries in winter, and chiefly eastward of Norway in summer; A. segetum, the Bean Goose, another of our hibernal visitants, breeds from Scandinavia to Amurland, and migrates southward to Madeira, North Africa, China, and Japan; A. brachyrhynchus, the Pink-footed Goose, extends over North Europe, and is common with us in the cold season ”

“ Geese spend much more time on land than ducks do. If you will study the habits of the common barnyard goose you will learn many of the ways of its wild relations that nest too far north to be watched by "every child." Canada geese that have been wounded by {268} sportsmen in the fall, can be kept on a farm perfectly contented all winter; but when the honking flocks return from the south in March or April, they rarely resist "the call of the wild," and away they go toward their kin and freedom. ”

“ If feeding in the fields or meadows, they nip the blades of grass sidewise, in the manner of the Domestic Goose, and after rainy weather, they are frequently seen rapidly patting the earth with both feet, as if to force the earth-worms from their burrows. If they dabble at times with their bills in muddy water, in search of food, this action is by no means so common with them as it is with Ducks, the Mallard for example. They are extremely fond of alighting in corn-fields covered with tender blades, where they often remain through the night and commit great havoc. ”

“ Each of them was large enough to comfortably hold two hunters, who could easily move around, and thus be able to fire in any direction. They were about four feet high, and so constructed that when the hunters inside were crouching down they were quite invisible to the passing geese. Some Indians used to pile lumps of snow here and there on the edge of the nest to help the disguise. It is a peculiarity of wild geese that white objects never frighten them. This was the reason why the hunters all wore white suits and white caps. Then a number of decoys were made. ”

“ The flight of this species is strong and steady, and its migrations over the United States are performed at a considerable elevation, by regular flappings of the wings, and a disposition into lines similar to that of other Geese. It walks well, and with rather elevated steps; but on land its appearance is not so graceful as that of our common Canada Goose. Whilst with us they are much more silent than any other of our species, rarely emitting any cries unless when pursued on being wounded. ”

“ Because of the rigor of the winter most of the people of the goose nation perished so that they were always a small and weak nation. At last one goose had a dream of the south-land, that it was pleasant even in winter, that the winter there was mild and that there was plenty of food there. So she began teaching the other geese that they should practice flying more and thus make their wings strong so they could fly to the south-land before winter time. Some people of the goose nation believed the vision and began to practice flying to make their wings strong for the autumn journey. ”