BRANTA CANADENSIS, WILD GOOSE. 555 



I Lave not myself seeu the uests in trees, I am perfectly satisfied of the 

 reliability of the aecounts furnished me by various persons, among 

 whom I need only mention Mr. J. Stevenson, of Dr. Hayden's party. 

 While I was in Montana I found the circumstance to be a matter of 

 common information among residents of that Territory, who expressed 

 surprise that it was not more generally known. The birds are stated 

 to build in the heavy timber along the larger streams, and to transport 

 the young to the water in their bills. This corresponds with the habit 

 of the Wood Duck ; while the exceptional mode of nesting is paralleled 

 in tlie case of the Herring Gull, which, according to Audubon, has been 

 found breeding in communities in trees, though, as is well known, it 

 ordinarily nests on the ground. 



While ascending the Missouri in June, 1874, I saw broods of young 

 geese on several occasions, apparently two or three weeks old, swim- 

 ming in the river near the bank. Later in the same season, albng the 

 northern border of Montana, many geese were observed breeding in 

 small lakes. At one of these, several dozen were killed with clubs by 

 some members of the Survey. The old birds being then in moult, were 

 consequently unable to tly, while the young were also still deprived of 

 tbe powel^ of flight. At this point one of the birds furnished an in- 

 stance of voluntary semi-domestication much like that narrated by Mr. 

 Ridgway in the case of the tame Snow Goose ; it entered camp, as if to 

 escape the sad destruction that was carried on, became perfectly tame, 

 and at last accounts was being carried along by the party as a pet. 



Hutchins' Goose has not, to my knowledge, been known to nest within 

 our limits. A set of four eggs before me, collected on the Arctic coast 

 oast of Anderson Kiver, July 4, 1803, are larger than as described by 

 previous writers, measuring 3.40 by 2.25; they are almost perfectly 

 ellii»s()idal, an<!, while ai)pearing to have been originally white, are now 

 tinged with dirty-yellowish, as if soiled or discolored. Mr. Dall states 

 that in Alaska, where it is the most common of all the Geese, breeding 

 at Saint Michael's and Pastolik, as M^ell as all along the Yukon, it lays 

 six or eight eggs on the beaches, like A. (lamhdi, with which species it 

 arrives in the spring, departing about the end of October. Along our 

 Atlantic coast this variety a[)pears to be rare, and not to proceed further 

 than the Middle districts; but its great resemblance to the common 

 variety may cause it to be overlooked in a measure. But, as Audubon 

 suriinsed, its regular occurrence has been established. " 1 had occasion 

 to allude," he continues, "to a small species, called by the gunners of 

 Maine the Winter or Flight Goose, which they describe<l to me as re- 

 sembling the large (jommon kind in almost every particular except its 

 size." Both ]\Ir. Lawrence and ^Mr. Turnbull include it in their lists, as 

 do various New England writers. We must, however, visit the regions 

 west of the KocUy ^Mountains to find the Hutchins' Goose plentiful in 

 its favorite winter residencies, and observe it undei- the most favorable 

 circumstances. On river, lake and marsh, and particularly along the 

 sea coast, it is found in vnst numbers, being i)robably the most iibuiuhnit 

 representative of its family. It enters the United States early in Oc- 

 tober, or sometimes a little earlier, according to the weather, and in the 

 course of that month becomes dispersed over all its winter feeding- 

 grounds. It is generally in ]»o()r condition on its arrival, after the severe 

 journey, iierhaps extending from the uttermost Arctic land; but it tinds 

 abundance of food, and is soon in high fiesh again. During the rainy 

 season ill Ciililbrnia the plains and valleys, before brown and dry, be- 

 come clothed in rich verdure, and the nourishing grasses alVord susten- 

 ance to incredible luimbers of these and other Geese. Three kinds, the 



