A WINTER IN THE WILDERNESS 125 



grew tamer, and I have seen a pair of them perched on 

 the roof, which was only seven feet high. They came 

 forth from their hiding-places early in the afternoon, and 

 continued out till after midnight, as they were often 

 heard, and seen, flitting about on moonlight nights. As 

 the bird has a very wide expanse of wing, they presented 

 a grand and weird sight, moving about, notwithstanding 

 their great size, in perfect silence. Not the slightest 

 flutter of the wing could be heard. 



Throughout the winter no moose deer were seen; 

 but this was not because they were absent from the 

 district, for when the frost broke up several were killed. 

 It would seem that when they are once snowed up 

 in their " yards " they are prisoners for the whole 

 winter. It is singular that the wipiti never forms these 

 yards, or gives up the habit of wandering when the snow 

 is on the ground ; but wipiti are sometimes accidentally 

 snowed up in hollows of the ground. Cariboo seem to 

 escape this accident by going in great herds. The belt 

 of forest here approaches to within four or five miles of 

 the shores of Hudson Bay, and both moose and wipiti are 

 said by the trappers to be found to the limit of the forest, 

 tut not a yard beyond it. The Company's people agree 

 that these deer are not found on the coasts of the bay. 



Besides owls the only bird of prey seen before spring 

 was a white falcon, Falco candicans of the British, which 

 I shot on the 28th. This truly magnificent bird is 

 remarkable for the size and extreme brilliancy and fierce- 

 ness of its eye. The colour of the plumage is white 

 covered, on the upper parts, with triangular black spots. 

 It was an unusually fine specimen, but unfortunately the 

 skin was much damaged in transit, as were many of my 

 specimens, for I had no proper cases or appliances for 

 packing, and my bundles were often thrown about with 

 little deference to their contents, and not unfrequently 

 subjected to the wet of a heavy shower, or a bath at the 

 portages. 



