114 THE GREAT NORTH-WEST 



till the advent of Europeans. This shows a remarkable 

 power of adaptability on the part of our little feathered 

 friends, although there is certainly no great difference 

 between a hollow tree and a chimney. 1 



At the time of our arrival on the Severn nearly all 

 the small birds had gone. There were still a few pine 

 grosbeaks and swamp sparrows about, but these had all 

 disappeared before the last day of the month. A pair 

 of Lapland buntings was seen as late as the 3rd of No- 

 vember, when there was snow on the ground. After that 

 date there were no small birds at all about here, though 

 one or two were met with at odd times during the winter, 

 as will be noticed presently. 



The ducks and geese seen here were of the same 

 species as those found at Red River and Winnipeg. 

 They were migrating south during the whole of October, 

 though a few still lingered during the first week in No- 

 vember, but the winter this year was again late in appear- 

 ing. I noticed that neither ducks nor geese went off in 

 large flocks. It was but seldom that I saw as many as 

 twenty or thirty geese in one flock. About a dozen or 

 fourteen was the rule. Sometimes only four or five would 

 appear while I was watching, coming straight from the 

 north and flying rapidly in a straight line, sometimes 

 parallel, sometimes one after the other. The flocks always 

 had a sort of military formation, either in line or in wedge- 

 shaped flanks. This latter formation was almost always 

 adopted by the ducks, if the flock was large. I use the 

 word large comparatively, for I do not think I saw a flock 

 here numbering many more than a hundred. Thirty or 

 forty was the most common number. This is quite contrary 

 to what I have noticed in the Southern States and South 

 America, where I have seen tens of thousands of ducks in 

 a single flock, and almost equally large flights of geese. 



1 All kinds of birds seem capable of utilising foreign substances in the 

 construction of their nests. I yesterday saw a cormorant's nest which had 

 been built on <i wreck, and the seaweed of which it was composed bound 

 together with fragments of the wire-rigging. 



