CANADA GOOSE. 189 



parts of North America. Immense flocks appear annually 

 in the spring in Hudson's Bay, and pass far to the nprth 

 to breed, and return southward in autumn. Pennant, in 

 his Arctic Zoology, says, numbers also breed about Hud- 

 son's Bay, laying six or seven eggs each ; the young are 

 easily made tame. They proceed in their southern mi- 

 gration as far as South Carolina, where they winter in the 

 rice grounds. Sir John Richardson, in his Fauna Boreali- 

 Americana, says, " The arrival of this well-known bird in 

 the fur-countries is anxiously looked for, and hailed with 

 great joy by the natives of the woody and swampy dis- 

 tricts, who depend principally .upon it for subsistence 

 during the summer. It makes its first appearance in 

 flocks of twenty or thirty, which are readily decoyed 

 within gun-shot by the hunters, who set up stuffed skins, 

 and imitate its call. Two or three, or more, are so frequently 

 killed at a shot, that the usual price of a Goose is a single 

 charge of ammunition. One Goose, which, when fat, weighs 

 about nine pounds, is the daily ration for one of the Com- 

 pany's servants during the season, and is reckoned equiva- 

 lent to two Snow Geese,* or three ducks, or eight pounds 

 of buffalo and moose meat, or two pounds of pemmican, 

 or a pint of maize and four ounces of suet. About three 

 weeks after their first appearance, the Canada Geese dis- 

 perse in pairs throughout the country, between the 50th 

 and 67th parallels, to breed, retiring at the same time 

 from the shores of Hudson's Bay. They are seldom or 

 never seen on the coasts of the Arctic Sea. In July, after 

 the young birds are hatched, the parents moult, and vast 

 numbers are killed in the rivers and small lakes, when 



* There is an old saying, that a Goose is too much for one, and not 

 enough for two : Hearne, in his Journal, says, " The flesh of the Snow 

 Goose is delicate, but the bird is so small that I ate two one night for 

 supper" 



