140 SEA FOWL IN NOVA SCOTIA—GILPIN. 
running through the eyes and on the nape of the neck, the dark 
wing coverts, and black bill and feet. In 1874, I saw two speci- 
mens of the same shot on Halifax common, and in the collection 
of my friend, Mr. Downs, who considered them the young of the 
snow goose. With every respect for one who may be called the 
best field naturalist in the Dominion, I cannot reconcile the black 
bill and legs with Wilson’s description of the pale lake or reddish 
purple of the bills and feet of the young snow geese shot on the 
Delaware river, and must maintain my opinion. These are the 
only specimens I have seen. 
Of the Canada goose, his migrations may be said to be regular 
in the Spring. From after the middle of March to about the 
middle of April, numerous flocks pass over the land, going north- 
eastwards, and scattered parties, of half a dozen or more, are 
found feeding along the shores of the tide ponds and salt estuaries 
of the Bay of Fundy, the Atlantic coasts, and especially the shores 
of Cape Breton. Should heavy north-easters prevail these flights 
are driven down in numbers to the land, and thus every few 
years wild geese are plentiful in Halifax market during April. 
I have noted 10th April, 1879, one being shot at Digby, near the 
Bay of Fundy. The Brants also pass about the same time of 
Spring, but are less noticed, except during a long period of foge 
weather, when they seem bewildered, and cover the flats in 
hundreds, and are easily shot. The autumn migration of the 
geese and brants is less noticed. I have no notes of their alight- 
ing, but several of the peculiar note of the wild goose heard in 
October, November, and indeed midwinter. During one Spring, 
about 1870, the brants remained about Digby, N.S., till the 
middle of May, becoming very fat though arriving very lean. 
That these geese, as well as the snow goose, once bred in nuim- 
bers on the salt marshes of Annapolis County, and that their 
habits have been altered by advancing population, is well proved 
by old writers. The early French writers notice the abundance 
of “outards,” both white and grey, that bred on the Port Royal 
marshes, the white being no doubt the snow goose; and those 
bred from wild eggs, and carried to France as a royal present, 
still existed in their descendants, which thronged by hundreds, 
