350 WEB-FOOTED BIRDS. 



within gunshot by the hunters, who set up stales or stuffed 

 birds, and imitate their call. Two or three are so fre- 

 quently killed at a shot, in this way, that the usual price of 

 a Wild Goose is a single charge of ammunition. This 

 vernal flight of the Geese continues from about the middle 

 of April to the same time in May ; their appearance of 

 course coinciding with the thawing of the swamps and 

 marshes, though their usual food of grass and berries is 

 accesible at most times when not buried up in the snow. 

 These fruits are often, indeed, only mellowed by the frost, 

 and when stripped of their wintry wreath are again ready 

 for food as they were in the autumn before their disappear- 

 ance beneath the snow. At such times, according to Dr. 

 Richardson, the Wild Goose makes an abundant repast of 

 the farinaceous berries of the Silvery Buckthorn (Eleagnus 

 argentea,) as well as of other kinds which have escaped 

 destruction. After feeding in a desultory manner for about 

 three weeks, they retire from the shores of Hudson's Bay, 

 their great rendezvous, and disperse in pairs through the 

 country, between the 50th and 67th parallels to breed ; but 

 are seldom or never seen on the coasts of the Arctic Sea, 

 yet Mr. Audubon found them breeding on the shores of 

 Labrador. They lay 6 or 7 greenish-white eggs in a coarse 

 nest usually made on the ground, but some pairs occasionally 

 breed, on the banks of the Saskatchewan, in trees, making 

 use, on these occasions, of the deserted eyries of the Ravens 

 or Fishing Hawks. Its call or honic, is imitated by a pro- 

 longed nasal pronunciation of the syllable wook frequently 

 repeated. 



Solitude, and suitable food, seem principally to influence 

 the Canada Goose in the selection of its breeding place, it 

 is therefore not improbable but that many pairs pass the 

 period of reproduction in the swampy and retired marshes 

 of the great North-western lakes. At any rate, in the month 



