CANADA GOOSE. 287 



less than 30 degrees of latitude. In July it appears, after the 

 young birds are hatched, in the fur countries ; the parents moult ; 

 and advantage being then taken of their helplessness, vast 

 numbers are killed in the rivers and small lakes when thus dis- 

 abled from flight. At such times, when chased by a canoe, 

 and frequently obliged to dive, they soon become fatigued, and 

 making for the shore in order to hide, are quickly overtaken, 

 and fall an easy prey to their pursuers. 



Attached to particular places of resort at the period of 

 migration, the Geese in autumn, instinctively advertised of the 

 approaching winter, and of the famine which to them neces- 

 sarily attends in its train, are again seen to assemble on the 

 sea-coast, courting the mildness of its temperature and its 

 open waters, which seem to defy the access of frost. They 

 thus continue to glean the marshes along the shores, till the 

 increasing severity of the weather urges them to a bolder 

 and more determined flight from the threatening dangers 

 of their situation. They now in vast array begin to leave the 

 freezing shores of Hudson Bay. Like the rest of their gab- 

 bling and sagacious tribe, at the call of their momentarily 

 elected leader they ascend the skies, wheeling round, as if to 

 take a final leave of their natal shores, and sensible to the 

 breeze, arranged in long converging lines ( > ) , they survey 

 their azure route, and instinctively follow the cheering path of 

 the mid-day sun, whose feeble gleams alone offer them the 

 hope of arriving in some more genial clime. The leader, 

 ambitious of his temporary station, utters the cheering and 

 reiterated cry ; his loud but simple clarion, answered by the 

 yielding ranks, dispels the gloom of solitude through which they 

 laboriously wander to uncertain and perhaps hostile lands. At 

 length they come in sight of the habitations of men. Suspicious 

 of these appearances, they urge their flight higher and more 

 silently in the air. Bewildered by fogs, however, they often 

 descend so low and honk so loud as to give sufficient notice 

 of their approach to the ambitious gunner, who thus pours 

 destruction among the alarmed and confused flock. They also 

 hear, or think they hear, a wandering companion lost from 



