146 GEESE 



On July 1st, 1940 (Dominion Day), Messrs. Angus Gavin and Er- 

 nest Donovan, officials of the Hudson's Bay Company, solved the problem 

 by the discovery of the nesting grounds of this little goose on a lake in a 

 tributary of the Perry River, about 50 miles north of the Arctic Circle. 

 The interesting discovery was first announced in "The Beaver," De- 

 cember, 1940. This magazine is published quarterly by "the Governor 

 and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay, 

 commonly known as the Hudson's Bay Company," incorporated 2nd 

 May, 1690. 



John Cassin in 1861 named this bird Ross's Goose (Chen rossi) after 

 Bernard Rogan Ross, Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company, who 

 sent him specimens from Fort Resolution, Great Slave Lake. Ross was 

 born at Londonderry, Ireland, and a correspondent of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution. 



In the issue of "The Beaver" that contains the announcement of the 

 discovery of the breeding grounds of this goose, B. W. Cartwright re- 

 counts the unsuccessful attempts of the early Factors of the Hudson's 



Bay Company to locate the summer home of 

 this species. Of the final effort he says: "The 

 successful termination of the long search for 

 the breeding grounds of Ross's Goose is due, 

 in no small measure, to the well-known 

 sportsman-naturalist E. F. G. (Ted) White of 

 Ottawa. It was at the Wildlife Conference 

 called by President Franklin D. Roosevelt at 

 Washington in February, 1936, that Mr. 

 White discussed the problem with R. H. G. 

 Bonnycastle, representing the Hudson's Bay 

 Company at the conference. White induced 

 Bonnycastle to set the wheels of the great or- 

 ganization in motion, with the result so con- 

 clusively set forth in Gavin's and Donovan's 

 narrative." 



Of the actual discovery Gavin (1940) says: "It was the last day of 

 June, 1940, when we set out from Perry River post, on Flagstaff Island, 

 to look for the nesting grounds of the elusive Ross's Goose. As it was 

 midsummer, the days were long Perry River post being about seventy- 

 five miles north of the Arctic Circle and it was not until about four 

 o'clock in the afternoon that we started out on the first leg of our journey 

 across the sea-ice to the mouth of the Perry River .... with Donovan 

 and myself sitting in the middle of the canoe like factors of old, the 

 natives dipped their paddles and we were off on one of the most delight- 

 ful and thrilling trips it has been my pleasure to encounter in the North. 

 The weather was perfect; each bend of the river brought new thrills. 

 Ducks were everywhere, and the constant singing of the small birds, 

 coupled with the harsher notes of the cranes and the honking of the 

 geese, made sweet music. 



