Intetnor of British North America. 139 



Anser hyperboreus. 



The Snow-Goose (the "Wawie" of the Cree Indians, or 

 "Wavy" of the voyageurs) is late in its arrival in spring; but, 

 like the American Swan, delays behind the others of the family 

 in going south in autumn, after which, as Mr. Barnston has so 

 happily expressed it, "the coast that has been resonant with 

 their petulant and incessant cries, and covered patchlike by 

 their whitened squadrons, is silent and deserted, a barren and 

 frozen shore." The species appears numerous both on Hudson^s 

 Bay and in the west, as I have seen it as far as the Rocky 

 Mountains ; and Mr. Ross says it is abundant on the Mackenzie. 

 Although I shot the bird, I did not preserve a specimen, as I 

 thought it a well-marked species, and I had much work on hand 

 at the time. An anecdote was related to me concerning the 

 Snow-Goose by Mr, Pruden, a fur-trader, which is, I think, 

 worthy of record. His father, living at Red River Settlement, 

 had obtained in someway or other, and managed to domesticate, 

 a pair of " Wavies ;" but, after a while, one died. The next fall, 

 as a flock of this species was passing over, a bird singled itself 

 out and descended to the tame Goose, and, taking up its quarters 

 in a business-like manner, lived with it all the winter. The 

 following spring, as some of his relations came by, he took wing, 

 joined the flock, and proceeded to the north ; but, curious enough, 

 in the fall, returned again to his adopted winter mate, and lived 

 with it as in the previous winter. It had done this for two or 

 three years ; but in the spring of 1857, when Mr. Pruden went 

 to his father's house, he missed the bird, and presumed it had 

 been killed or something had happened to it. One might have 

 expected such an occurrence as this, had the stay been made 

 during the breeding-season, in place of remaining to brave out 

 the inclement season of a northern, winter. 



Anser albatus (Cassin). 



Anser rossii (Baird). 



In his paper " On the Fauna of the Mackenzie River District " 

 {' Nat. Hist. Rev.' No. 7), Mr. Bernard Ross remarks :— " There 

 can be no doubt of the existence of three species of Snow-Geese, 

 exclusive of the Blue Wavey of Hudson's Bay, as the Slave Lake 

 Indians have a different name for each kind. The first which 



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