ARRIVAL OF SUMMER BIRDS. Ill 



Great Bear Lake is navigable for its whole 

 extent for only fifty days in the year. It is frozen 

 over later than shallower pieces of water in its 



the intruder passed the nest without seeing it. As soon as the 

 eggs are taken, the goose rises out of the water and flies close to 

 the head of the captor, uttering a frightened and pitiful cry. 

 These geese are more numerous in the Valley of the Yukon 

 than any other kind ; and the numbers that pass northwards there 

 are perhaps equal to that of all the other species together. The 

 Gens du large {Neyetse-kutchin), who visit the north coast regu- 

 larly to traffic with the Eskimos, say that they have never seen 

 any flying northwards over the sea in that quarter. White geese 

 (snow geese, Chen hyperboreus) are also passengers here, and 

 there are likewise black geese, which I presume you have never 

 seen. A few of them pass down Peel's River, but they are more 

 abundant on the Yukon. They are very handsome birds, con- 

 siderably smaller than the white geese, and have a dark brown 

 or bi'ownish black colour, with a white ring round the neck, the 

 head and bill having the shape of that of the bustard." (This 

 description applies pretty well to the brent goose (Anser ber- 

 nicla). The black geese are the least numerous and the latest 

 that arrive here. They fly in large flocks with remarkable 

 velocity, and generally pass on without remaining, as the others 

 do, some days to feed. When they alight, it is always in the 

 water ; and, if they wish to land, they swim ashore. They are 

 very fat, and their flesh has an oily and rather disagreeable 

 taste. Bustards, laughing geese, ducks, and large gulls make 

 their appearance here from the 27th to the 29th of April. Snow 

 geese and black geese about the 15th or 16th of May, when the 

 other kinds become plentiful. They have mostly passed by the 

 end of the month, though some, especially the bustards, are seen 

 in June. The white geese and black geese breed only on the 

 shores of the Arctic Sea. They return in September and early 

 in October, flying high, and seldom halting.'' 



