The common American or Canada goose is a noble game bird, ranking with the wild turkey. Its "honk, honk," as a long v-shaped line led by an old gander fang the air on the way northward, is one of the first signs of spring; and, when still longer lines of wild geese go south, the northern farmer feels that winter is upon him. The breeding grounds of the wild goose are retreating farther and farther north in British America before the advance of settlements. Hunters in the north-western wheat-growing region, particularly in the Red River Valley, still count on sport during the autumn migration. They shoot the geese on the wing, frequently from pits or booths made in the passes usually traversed by the low-flying geese on the way to or from some lake where they are wont to rest at night to the stubble field where they glean by day under the guard of sentinels. Wild geese are less afraid of a team than of a person afoot. They seem to recognize a gun at a distance. The Canada goose takes kindly to captivity, raising its young in entire content.
