^°l89o"''J PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 485 



Touchwood Hills in September, but uot in Manitoba (Maeoun). Shell 

 Eiver : 1885, first seen, one male, on May 23 ; breeds here; flaps for a 

 few yards on the water and spreads its tail and shakes its head like a 

 fan-tail pigeon (Calcutt). Qu'Appelle: Common summer resident; 

 breeds May 1 (Guernsey). 



46. Chen ceerulescens. Blue Goose. 



Winnipeg: Eare; transient visitant (Hine). 



47. Chen hyperborea. Suow Goose ; White Wavy. 



Abundant spring migrant; less common in the fall ; abundant dur- 

 ing migration along the boundary (Ooues). Winnipeg: Transient 

 visitor; abundant; going north to breed (Hine). Eed Eiver Valley: 

 Transient visitor ; abundant (Hunter). Swampy Island : 18S5, first seen, 

 four, on May 7 ; next seen on May 10, after which it disappeared ; 

 never common ; does not breed, and is rare on this lake (Plunkett). 

 Migrant at Shoal Lake (Gunn). Ossowa (Wagner). Portage la 

 Prairie: 1884, abundant spring visitor to the large grass marshes near 

 Portage la Prairie, but rarely seen in the autumn in that neighbor- 

 hood ; near Winnipeg it is, however, not uncommon in October; first 

 seen April 23, 1884 (Nash). Carberry : Seen in enormous numbers in 

 spring, and in much less numbers in the fall (Thompson). Little Sas- 

 katchewan, near St. Martin's Lake: Wavies, as the half-breeds term 

 them (Wa-wain Cree) {Anser hyperhoreus), flying to the south early 

 this morning in large flocks, were regarded as a sure sign of apx)roach- 

 ing winter (Sept. 27, 1858, Hind). Two Eivers : 1885, first seen, one, on 

 April C ; next seen, four, on April 18; migrant (Oriddle). Qu'Appelle : 

 Transient ; passing over May 3 to 28 (Guernsey). Severn House (Mur- 

 ray). 



In Hudson's Bay they are the shyest and most watchful of all the species of geese, 

 never suffering an open approach, not even within two or three gunshots. Yet in 

 some of the rivers near Cumberland House and at Basquian the Indians frequently 

 kill twenty at one shot : but this is only done in moonlight niglits, when the geese 

 are sitting on the mud and the sportsmen are perfectly concealed from their view. 

 (Hearne, 1795.) 



In April the ducks and geese return in great numbers, become plentiful, and feed 

 in numerous flocks in all the marshes fringing the lakes for at least a month and a 

 half. The gray geese and ducks draw off by degrees in May, but the white geese 

 (wawee) come generally in the last week of April, and begin to clear away for 

 Hudson's Bay on the 13th or 14th of May, where they invariably arrive on the 15th 

 of May. The last of them leave here from the 20th to the 25th of the same mouth. 

 <D.Gunn.) 



These birds pass over the country in countless numbers each spring, generally ar- 

 riving in large bands about the 15th of May, although I have seen stragglers as early 

 as the 28th of April. A great number of immense flocks generally remain in the 

 Province for a couple of weeks to " take in sand " and feed. They are very easily shot 

 while on the gravel grounds : they appear very stupid ( J. e., in the morning and even- 

 ing). When not taking in sand and gravel they are very difficult to approach and 

 are as wary as any geese. These birds are rarely seen in the autumn. The half- 



