. The Canadian field-naturalist. 82 The Canadian Field-Naturalist [Vol. XXXVI anxiety. Meanwhile the little ones bobbed to the surface in a scattered bunch like a handful of yellow corks, saw us and ducked again, came up more scattered still and disappeared immediate- ly. They rapidly became more expert in their bobbing and diving and soon indicated their rising only by an instantaneous glimpse of a dull yellow spot in a swirl of cloudy water. The camera was confusedly pointed this way and that, but so quick were the subjects that no snap could be made, and all the while they kept scattering a
. The Canadian field-naturalist. 82 The Canadian Field-Naturalist [Vol. XXXVI anxiety. Meanwhile the little ones bobbed to the surface in a scattered bunch like a handful of yellow corks, saw us and ducked again, came up more scattered still and disappeared immediate- ly. They rapidly became more expert in their bobbing and diving and soon indicated their rising only by an instantaneous glimpse of a dull yellow spot in a swirl of cloudy water. The camera was confusedly pointed this way and that, but so quick were the subjects that no snap could be made, and all the while they kept scattering and getting farther apart until finally we were The brood formed in line in the same manner as before, but instead of rushing in at full speed, we slowly edged them in towards shore. Here there was a narrow, sandy mud wash at the foot of a steep embankment some twelve inches high. On top of this was a dry flat, covered with scanty grass and sage clumps, rising gradually at first, then more steeply, to a bare hill a hundred yards back. They gradually worked in to this shore. On being pushed a little too hard, the goose again splashed off Seeing that a repetition of the former fruitless tactics was about to follow, we. "We let Ihe gander herd his charges shorewards" left, with a virgin camera, vainly waiting the re- appearance of the last gosling seen, and there was nothing but empty lake before us with a pair of anxious parent geese still endeavouring to decoy us away—but from a safer distance and with considerably less recklessness. We withdrew rather crestfallen, but before we lost sight of them we could see that the little family was reunited and making for the grassy marsh where there was cover for young geese and safety from motor boats. This was interesting of course as a demonstra- tion of the ability of the young to scatter and hide on the open lake, but, except for the first line-formation with the long conspicuous parental necks prone on the water, not diffe
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Keywords: ., bookauthorottawafi, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, bookyear1922
