BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE REGION. 



127 



Englifh tame Goofe," adding, "thefe come in great fiockes about Michelmas, fometimes there 

 will be two or three thoufand in a flocke, thofe continue fixe weekes, and fo tiie to the Southward, 

 returning in March, and ftaying fixe weekes more, returning againe to the Northward; the 

 price of one of thefe is eight pence.'" That the white birds just referred to were Snow 

 Geese is bejond question, but whether or not thev represented both forms of that species is 

 less certain. Both continue to appear in New England, but the laiger bird {Chen hyperborea 

 nivalis) has been taken only a few times within tlie past fifty years, and the smaller {Chen hyper- 

 horea), although decidedly the commoner of the two, is no longer a frequent or regular visitor.] 



40. Branta canadensis (Linn.). 

 Can.\da Goose. 



Transient visitor in spring and autumn, formerly abundant and still not uncommon. 



SEASONAL OCCURRENCE. 



March 8, 1894, large flock, Cambridge, R. Walcott. 



March 15 — April 15. 

 April 29, 1889, one seen. Rock Meadow, W. Faxon. 



October 7, i8gi, flock of fifty seen, Cambridge, H. W. Henshaw. 



November i — 30. 

 December 26, 1898, flock of twenty-five seen over Fresh Pond, O. A. Lothrop. 



Canada Geese may still be seen or heard nearly every spring and autumn, 

 passing high in air over the Cambridge Region on their northward and southward 

 migrations. Although observed much less often than formerly, they continue to 

 appear in considerable numbers, attracting general attention by their imposing 

 flight and wild, musical clamor — which stirs the blood of old sportsmen more, 

 perhaps, than does any other sound in all nature. Between April i and 8, 

 1893, ten flocks passed within sight of our place in Cambridge, and five of them 

 (all noted on the 8th) contained respectively fifty, sixty, seventy-five, one hun- 

 dred, and one hundred and twenty-five Geese — as nearly as the birds could be 

 counted. This, of course, was an e.xceptionally heavy migration for so recent 

 a time, although it would not have been considered very remarkable forty or fifty 

 years ago. 



Since my earliest recollection no large flocks of Geese have been known to 

 visit our ponds, but small flocks and single birds used to alight rather fre- 

 quently, and still do so occasionally, in Fresh, Spy and the Mystic Ponds. Mr. 

 Walter Faxon tells me that he found a solitary Goose in Rock Meadow on April 



1 William Wood, New Englands Prospect, ed. 2, 1635, 26. Charles Deane's ed., 1865, 34. 



