Cassell's book of birds; vol. 4Brehm, Alfred Edmund
Science
Cassell's book of birds; vol. 4
Brehm, Alfred Edmund
Birds
winter use. The eggs are also much esteemed, and the feathers form an
important article of commerce. The call of the Canada Goose resembles the
syllables, "Hawk, hawk, hawk, awhawk, awhawk."
THE SNOW GOOSE.
The SNOW GOOSE (_Anser_ [_Chen_] _hyperboreus_) has the entire plumage
of a pure white, with the exception of the first ten quills, which are
black, with white roots, and white shafts tipped with black. In young
birds the feathers on the upper back, shoulders, a portion of the neck,
the breast, and sides are blackish grey; the head and nape are shaded with
grey; the lower back and feathers on the upper tail-covers are dark grey;
the primary and secondary quills greyish black, the latter bordered with
greyish white; the tail-feathers are also dark grey, and similarly edged.
The eye is dark brown, the beak dull pale red, edged with black, and the
foot pale bright red. This species is from twenty-six to twenty-seven
inches long, and from fifty-two to fifty-three broad; the wing measures
sixteen and the tail six inches.
"The young of this species," says Audubon, "begin to acquire their
whiteness about the head and neck after the first year, but the upper
parts remain of a dark blueish colour until the bird suddenly becomes
white all over, at least this is the case with such as are kept in
captivity. My friend Dr. Bachman, of Charleston, South Carolina, kept a
male Snow Goose several years along with his tame Geese. He had received
it from a friend while it was in its grey plumage, and the following
spring it became white. It had been procured in the autumn, and proved
to be a male. In a few days it became very gentle, and for several
years it mated with a Common Goose, but the eggs produced by the latter
never hatched. The Snow Goose was in the habit of daily frequenting a
mill-pond in the vicinity, and returning regularly at night along with
the rest; but in the beginning of each spring it occasioned much trouble.
It then continually raised its head and wings, and attempted to fly
off; but finding this impossible, it was anxious to perform its journey
on foot, and it was several times overtaken and brought back, after it
had proceeded more than a mile, having crossed fences and plantations
in a direct course northward. This propensity cost it its life; it had
proceeded as far as the banks of the Cooper River, when it was shot by a
person who supposed it to be a wild bird." A Snow Goose kept by Audubon
himself exhibited the same desire to go northward on the return of spring.
When migrating northward, although they start at the same time, the young
and old keep in separate flocks, the young continuing to remain apart
from the old even when approaching the higher latitudes. During the whole
winter, indeed, they remain divided, although in the same localities; and
Audubon informs us that, although the young and old are often seen to
repose on the same sand-bar, the flocks keep at as great a distance as
possible from each other.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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