. Our domestic birds; . duckso closely that people not familiar with both often mistake largewhite ducks for geese, but no one that knows either kind wellis likely to make mistakes in the identity of any of the common varieties. Whilemany of the smalldomestic geeseare no heavierthan the largestducks, geese areon the averagemore than twiceas large as legs arelonger and muchstronger. Theirbills are largerat the juncturewith the head andsmaller and morepointed at the ducks areusually very timid, geese are bold, and this makes a markeddifference in their attitude when approac
. Our domestic birds; . duckso closely that people not familiar with both often mistake largewhite ducks for geese, but no one that knows either kind wellis likely to make mistakes in the identity of any of the common varieties. Whilemany of the smalldomestic geeseare no heavierthan the largestducks, geese areon the averagemore than twiceas large as legs arelonger and muchstronger. Theirbills are largerat the juncturewith the head andsmaller and morepointed at the ducks areusually very timid, geese are bold, and this makes a markeddifference in their attitude when approached and also in thecarriage of their bodies. They are very strong birds, quite ableto defend themselves against the attacks of small animals andfrom annoyance by children. Indeed, they are very likely totake an aggressive attitude toward persons or animals that theyregard as trespassers, and a large gander when angry is a dan-gerous customer. A blow from his wing might knock a childdown or even break a small childs Fig. 140. Emden Geese GEESE 159 There are no regular distinguishing marks of sex in males average larger than the females, but the differenceis slight and some females may be larger than some males ofthe same breeding. In some foreign varieties, not known inthis country, the males are mostly of one color and the femalesof another, but as there are exceptions to. this rule, it is notreliable. In those varieties which have a knob on the bill thisis likely to be more prominent in the males. There is nothingin the form of theplumage to distin-guish the male, likethe little curl in thetail of the voices of malesand females are sonearly alike that,while a differencemay sometimes benoted in the voicesof birds known to beof different sexes,the voice is not aplain indication ofthe sex. There aresome males so dis-tinctly masculine, and some females so distinctly feminine, inappearance and behavior, that a person familiar with geese willnot often make
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