Identifier: cu31924022528685 (find matches)
Title: The birds of Ohio; a complete scientific and popular description of the 320 species of birds found in the state
Year: 1903 (1900s)
Authors: Dawson, William Leon, 1873- Jones, Lynds, b. 1865
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: Columbus, The Wheaton Publishing Co.
Contributing Library: Cornell University Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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less, breathless,into the crisp March air to behold a company of Wild Geese passing forwardinto the frosty North! Honk, honk! We think madly of our gun upstairs,for the Geese are provokingly near, and we hear the thrilling swish of the low-sweeping wings; but we take it out in great boasts to our similarly hatlessneighbor, of what we could have done if the gun had been put together andwe had known that those foolish Geese were coming right over town. Andwhen the great birds become a row of trailing points on the northern sky,a fever of strange unrest burns within our veins, and we wonder throughwhat ancestral folly our wings were clipped, and our race condemned toimceasing barn-yard toil. For the Canada Goose there are but two points of the compass, Northand South; and unlike most migrants, he does not go by the map, nor followfavorite paths through the air, but flies straight over hill and dale, city andhamlet alike, until the goal is reached, or until the weather discourages further
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THE CANADA GOOSE. 579 movement for a time. The Geese move usually at a considerable height,forming open V-shaped figures, with the oldest or strongest gander in thelead at the apex; or else in single oblique lines. Each bird demands as cleara field as possible, and this is best secured by an arrangement which allowseach goose to look over the wing of the one next preceding, right or left,according to the branch of the V which it occupies. The line of marchshifts and changes under the eye, as the hindmost birds become dissatisfiedwith their positions, and change sides, or as tired leaders give place to fresherbirds; and the changes are accomplished not without much lordly discussionin high-pitched honks. When selecting a pond or corner of the lake in which to spend the night,the birds first circle about cautiously at a safe height, and then slide downthe air from a point a mile or so away, approaching the water silently and ata low angle. In rising from the water or the ground, the Gee

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