Mr. G. Barnston on the Stvam and Geese of Hudson's Bay. 253 



globicera), and probably to want the standing bony crest which 

 forms so marked a feature in this species. From the three birds 

 brought to me by Jose Ordonez, I am able to state that the 

 female differs in no way from the male except in being rather 

 smaller in size, and in having the crest on the head rather shorter 

 and more tapering. All three specimens were adult, and the 

 ovary of the females very plainly developed. Of the sex of the 

 male, too, I can speak with equal certainty. Comparing the 

 sternum with that of Penelope purpurascens, a very marked 

 affinity is observable. The cranial protuberance is attached to 

 the skull. It is hollow, the cavity being filled with a cellular 

 tissue, as in the bill of a Toucan (Ramphastos). The enclosing 

 bone is extremely fragile, and in the females may easily be 

 crushed between the finger and thumb. The crest is deep 

 vermilion in colour, also the legs and toes. The bill is a very 

 pale straw colour, and the iris white. The male, the day after it 

 was killed, weighed 5 lbs. 



1 1 Hanover Terrace, Regent's Park, 

 May 25th, 1860. 



XXXI. — Recollections of the Swans and Geese of Hudson's Bay. 

 By George Barnston, of the Hudson's Bay Company's 

 Service. 



Swans, except in a few particular localities, are scarce, rather 

 than plentiful birds on the shores of Hudson's Bay. They are 

 seen at the same time as the other migratory birds, winging 

 their way to the secluded recesses of the North, resting through- 

 out the interior, and losing units of their number here and 

 there by the Indian's gun. In the scarcity of their favourite 

 food (the roots of the Sagittaria sagittifolia) , they have recourse 

 to those of Equiseta, and the tender underground runners of 

 some grasses of the northern latitudes. They sometimes breed 

 in the interior before arriving at the coast. I had two eggs 

 brought to me from a nest on the banks of a lake near Norway 

 House ; but I cannot say whether these were of the Cygnus ame- 

 ricanus or C. buccinator. Towards Eastmain Fort, in James's 

 Bay, a considerable number of Swans hatch ; and a few are killed 



T 2 



