NORTHERN OCEAN 389 



skin, [423] thinly beset with black bristles, and the legs are 

 large and black. It usually frequents open swamps, the sides 

 of rivers, and the margins of lakes and ponds, feeds on frogs 

 and small fish, and esteemed good eating. The wing-bones 

 of this bird are so long and large, that I have known them 

 made into flutes with tolerable success. It seldom has more 

 than two young, and retires Southward early in the fall. 



The Brown Crane. ^ This species is far inferior in size to Brown Crane, 

 the former, being seldom three feet and a half in length, and 

 on an average not weighing seven pounds. Their haunts and 

 manner of life are nearly the same as that of the Hooping 

 Crane, and they never have more than two young, and those 

 seldom fly till September. They are found farther North 

 than the former, for I have killed several of them on Marble 

 Island, and have seen them on the Continent as high as the 

 latitude 65°. They are generally esteemed good eating, and, 

 from the form of the body when fit for the spit, they 

 acquire the name of the North West Turkey. There is a 

 circumstance respecting this bird that is very peculiar ; 

 which is, that the gizzard is larger than that of a swan, and 

 remarkably so in the young birds. The Brown Cranes are 

 frequently seen in hot calm days to soar to an amazing height, 

 always flying in circles, till by degrees they are almost out of 

 sight, yet their note is so loud, that the sportsman, before he 

 sees their situation, often fancies they are very near him. 

 They visit [424] Hudson's Bay in far greater numbers than 

 the former, and are very good eating. 



Bitterns " are common at York Fort in Summer, but are Bitterns, 

 seldom found so far North as Churchill River. I have seen 

 two species of this bird ; some having ash-coloured legs, 



[' The Brown Crane {Grus canadensis), was described by Linnasus from 

 Hudson Bay specimens, and is still rather common on its marshy plains, and 

 on the Barren Grounds.] 



[- The American Bittern, Boiaurus lentiginosus (Montagu), is fairly com- 

 mon in the marshes about Hudson Bay north to the vicinity of York Factory.] 



