This is the largest species of merganser; weight about four pounds; length two feet four inches. The bill three inches long, narrow, serrated, or toothed, on the edges of both mandibles; the tip of the upper hooked; colour red: irides the same; the head and upper part of the neck glossy greenish black; the feathers on the crown and back of the head are long and loose; the rest of the neck, breast, and under parts, white; the sides, above the thighs, undulated with dusky lines; the upper part of the back black; lower part of the back, rump, and tail coverts, brownish ash-colour; the lesser wing coverts white; the rest ash-colour, with some white; the greater quill feathers are black, with ash-colour on the interior webs of some of the inner ones; the secondaries white, margined with greenish black on the outer webs; the scapulars nearest the body black, the others white; the tail consists of eighteen ash-coloured feathers, with dusky shafts; legs orange; in some specimens the breast is of a rosy buff-colour.
The goosander sometimes visits our rivers and lakes in severe winters, but retires to the more northern latitudes of Greenland and Iceland, where it breeds. In the Orkneys and Hebrides it is found the whole year round, while in the other districts it is only a winter visitant. It is not uncommon on the continent of Europe and Asia, but most plentiful towards the north. It is a winter inhabitant of the sea shore, and fresh water lakes of America, where they usually associate in small parties of six and eight. They disappear from that country in the month of April, and return in November. Its food consists entirely of fish, for which it dives with great celerity, and holds its slippery prey with great security, by means of its toothed bill, which is admirably adapted to the purpose.—Montagu.
Goose, s. A large waterfowl. Vide Anser.
Canada Goose, (Anas Canadensis Linn.; L’Oie à cravate, Buff.)—This is less than the swan goose, but taller and longer than the common goose, and may be considered as the connecting link between that species and the swan. Their average weight is about nine pounds, and the length about three feet six inches. The bill is black and two inches and a half long: irides hazel: the head and neck are also black, with a crescent shaped white band on the throat, which tapers off to a point on each side below the cheeks, to the hinder part of the head: the whiteness of this cravat is heightened by its contrast with the dark surrounding plumage, and it looks very pretty: this mark also distinguishes it from others of the goose tribe. All the upper parts of the plumage, the breast, and a portion of the belly, are of a dull brown, sometimes mixed with grey: the lower part of the neck, the belly, vent, and upper tail coverts, white; quills and tail black; legs dingy blue.
The English of Hudson’s Bay depend greatly on geese, of these and other kinds, for their support; and, in favourable years, kill three or four thousand, which they salt and barrel. Their arrival is impatiently attended; it is the harbinger of the spring, and the month named by the Indians the goose-moon. They appear usually at our settlements in numbers, about St. George’s day, O. S. and fly northward to nestle in security. They prefer islands to the continent, as further from the haunts of men. Thus Marble Island was found, in August, to swarm with swans, geese, and ducks; the old ones moulting, and the young at that time incapable of flying.
The English send out their servants, as well as Indians, to shoot these birds on their passage. It is in vain to pursue them; they therefore form a row of huts made of boughs, at musket shot distance from each other, and place them in a line across the vast marshes of the country. Each hovel, or, as it is called, stand, is occupied by only a single person. These attend the flight of the birds, and, on their approach, mimic their cackle so well that the geese will answer, and wheel and come nearer the stand. The sportsman keeps motionless, and on his knees, with his gun cocked, the whole time; and never fires till he has seen the eyes of the geese. He fires as they are going from him, then picks up another gun that lies by him, and discharges that. The geese which he has killed he sets upon sticks as if alive, to decoy others; he also makes artificial birds for the same purpose. In a good day (for they fly in very uncertain and unequal numbers) a single Indian will kill two hundred. Notwithstanding every species of goose has a different call, yet the Indians are admirable in their imitation of every one.
The vernal flight of the geese lasts from the middle of April until the middle of May. Their first appearance coincides with the thawing of the swamps, when they are very lean. The autumnal, or the season of their return with their young, is from the middle of August to the middle of October. Those which are taken in this latter season, when the frosts usually begin, are preserved in their feathers and left to be frozen for the fresh provisions of the winter stock. The feathers constitute an article of commerce, and are sent into England.
Common Wild Goose—Grey Lag Goose, (Anas anser, Linn.; L’Oie Sauvage, Buff.) This wild goose generally weighs about ten pounds, and measures two feet nine inches in length, and five in breadth. The bill is thick at the base, tapers towards the tip, and is of a yellowish red colour, with the nail white: the head and neck are of a cinereous brown, tinged with dull yellow, and from the separations of the feathers, the latter appears striped downwards: the upper part of the plumage is of a deep brown, mixed with ash-grey; each feather is lighter on the edges, and the lesser coverts are tipped with white: the shafts of the primary quills are white, the webs grey, and the tips black: the secondaries black, edged with white: the breast and belly are crossed and clouded with dusky and ash on a whitish ground; and the tail coverts and vent are of a snowy whiteness: the middle feathers of the tail are dusky, tipped with white: those adjoining more deeply tipped, and the exterior ones nearly all white: legs pale red.
This species is common in this country, and although large flocks of them, well known to the curious, in all the various shapes which they assume in their flight, are seen regularly migrating southward in the autumn, and northward in the spring, yet several of them are known to remain and breed in the fens of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, and, it is said, in various other parts of Great Britain. Pennant says they reside in the fens the whole year, breed there, and hatch about eight or nine young ones, which are often taken, easily made tame, and much more esteemed for the excellent flavour of their flesh than the domestic goose.