BRITISH COLUMBIA BIRDS 277 



It will perhaps be of interest to know that in the 

 vicinity of Long Lake, which we visited on September 

 1 7th, the wild goose, the mallard duck, the red- breasted 

 merganser, and the blue- winged teal, made their nests, 

 laid their eggs and hatched out their young. We saw 

 many very large flocks of these different species of wild 

 fowl in the sheltered coves of Sandy Lake and Long 

 Lake, and in the winding waters of the Iron Slough. 



A trapper who formerly ranged through this part of 

 the Bear Lake territory, when he found the nests of 

 the wild goose, would always take one or more eggs 

 from the nest, as long as the goose hadn't started to sit 

 upon them. He claimed that the goose could only 

 count up to four, but as a rule they lay five eggs, and 

 by robbing her of one egg a day he could keep her 

 " laying all summer without setting,' 1 or until the 

 gander would give up in disgust at her late hatching 

 and hie himself off to other quarters in search of an- 

 other mate. The young goslings make a rich feast for 

 the bald eagles, who so gluttonously feed upon them 

 that at times they can hardly walk from overfeeding. 



Kibbee came up to a full-grown bald eagle once, 

 which was so surfeited with feasting upon the tender 

 young birds that the big bird couldn't raise himself 

 from the ground, and he was consequently killed with 

 a canoe pole. 



The mallard duck shows much more sense than the 

 goose, and if its nest or the eggs are tampered with, it 



