NORTHERN OCEAN 399 



that season is very good ; and they remain in those parts as 

 long as the frost will permit them to procure a subsistence. 



Swans. ^ There are two species of this bird that visit Swans. 

 Hudson's Bay in summer ; and only differ in size, as the 

 plumage of both are perfectly white, with black bill and legs. 

 The smaller sort are more frequent near the sea-coast, but by 

 no means plentiful, and are most frequently seen in pairs, but 

 sometimes single, probably owing to their mates having been 

 killed on their passage North. Both species usually breed on 

 the islands which are in lakes ; and the eggs of the larger 

 species are so big, that one of them is a sufficient meal for a 

 moderate man, without bread, or any other addition. In the 

 interior parts of the country the larger Swan precedes every 

 other species of water-fowl, and in some years arrive so early 

 as the month of March, long before the ice of the rivers is 

 broken up. At those times they always frequent the open 

 waters of falls and rapids, where they are frequently shot 

 by the Indians in considerable numbers. They usually weigh 

 upwards of thirty pounds, and the lesser species from eighteen 

 to twenty-four. The flesh of both are excellent [436] eating, 

 and when roasted, is equal in flavour to young heifer-beef, and 

 the cygnets are very delicate. 



Notwithstanding the size of this bird, they are so swift on 

 the wing as to make them the most difficult to shoot of any 

 bird I know, it being frequently necessary to take sight ten or 

 twelve feet before their bills. This, however, is only when 

 flying before the wind in a brisk gale, at which time they 

 cannot fly at a less rate than an hundred miles an hour ; but 



P The smaller Swan is Olor columbianus (Ord.), formerly very abundant 

 on Hudson Bay, and still occurring in some numbers during migrations. It 

 breeds on the islands in the northern parts of the Bay, and in other parts of the 

 far North. 



The larger Whooping Swan, Olor buccinator (Richardson), formerly bred 

 about the southern part of the Hudson Bay region, and also far northward. In 

 the wholesale destruction of these magnificent birds, this species has suffered 

 most.] 



