Identifier: americangameinit00herb (find matches)
Title: American game in its seasons
Year: 1873 (1870s)
Authors: Herbert, Henry William, 1807-1858
Subjects: Game and game-birds Hunting
Publisher: New York, G.E. Woodward (etc.)
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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known universally tlirouglioiit tliiscontinent, as tlie Wild-Goose, and yet, although that isnot in truth his correct apellation, we do not in thisinstance very particularly demur to it; since it is byvery far the most important of all tlie species of thisgenus, which visit our shores. The term Wild-Goose isproperly applied to the Gray Lag Goose of Europe, whichis beyond any doubt the stock whence is derived thecommon domestic goose of our barn-yards, and w^hichprecisely resembles the tame bird, with the exceptionthat the ganders do not become white among the wildfowl; on this, however, no distinction of origin can besupported; for it is well understood that one of the con-sequences of domestication, is that in the process of gen-erations it converts animals, which are unicolored in theirnatural state, to piebalds, dapples, and various newcolors, in their artificial condition. The true name of this bird is the Canada Goose ; atitle which was given to it under the impression that its i
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THE CANADA GOOSE. 69 breeding-grounds lay in tliat country, and in the vicinityof tlie Great Lakes. Since tlie period, however, whenthose provinces have become more thickly settled, moreobservation has been bestowed on the haunts, habits, andmigrations of birds ; and it is now well ascertained that,although a few stragglers may breed in various seques-tered spots both in the States and in the Canadas, all themain hordes proceed still northward beyond the utmosthabitations of man, beyond the limits of the Arctic Cir-cle, perhaps beyond the Pole itself, there to nestle andrear the young in the untrodden solitudes, where nobreath of humanity has ever polluted the pure air, amidthe brief but delicious summer of the polar regions,where they rejoice—to quote the eloquent words of Mr.Giraud, in his birds of Long Island—where they rejoicein the absence of that great destroyer, rain, while thesplendors of a perpetual dry )\Iay render such regionsthe most suitable to their purpose. The Cana

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