404 A JOURNEY TO THE 



are perfectly white, except the quill-feathers, which are black, 

 the skin is of a dark lead-colour, and the flesh is excellent 

 eating, either fresh or salt. They are much inferior in size to 

 the Common Grey Geese, but equal to the Canada Geese. 



Blue Geese. Blue Geese.^ This species are of the same size as the 



Snow Geese ; and, like them, the bill and legs are of a deep 

 flesh-colour, but the whole plumage is of a dirty blue, 

 resembling old lead. The skin, when stripped of its feathers, 

 is of the same colour as the Snow Goose, and they are equally 

 good eating. This species of Geese are seldom seen to the 

 North of Churchill River, and not very common at York 

 Fort ; but at Albany Fort they are more plentiful than the 

 White or Snow Geese, Their breeding-places are as little 

 known to the most accurate observer as those of the Snow 

 Geese ; for I never knew any of their eggs taken, and their 

 Winter haunts have [442] hitherto been undiscovered. Those 

 birds are frequently seen to lead a flock of the White ones ; 

 and, as they generally fly in angles, it is far from unpleasant 

 to see a bird of a diff^erent colour leading the van. The leader 

 is generally the object of the first sportsman who fires, which 

 throws the whole flock into such confusion, that some of the 

 other hunters frequently kill six or seven at a shot. 



Horned HoRNED Wavey." This dclicatc and diminutive species 



of the Goose is not much larger than the Mallard Duck. 

 Its plumage is delicately white, except the quill-feathers, 

 which are black. The bill is not more than an inch long, 

 and at the base is studded round with little knobs about the 



[^ Chen ccerulescens (Linn.). First described from a Hudson Bay specimen. 

 According to the natives it breeds in the interior of northern Ungava ; west of 

 Hudson Bay, it is known only as a straggler. It winters in the Mississippi 

 valley and on the Atlantic coast.] 



[2 This is the first account of Chen rossi, formally described by Cassin in 

 1861 from specimens taken on Great Slave Lake. It is almost unknown on 

 Hudson Bay, but is abundant in migrations about Great Slave and Athabaska 

 lakes. It breeds somewhere to the northward of this region, but its summer 

 home is unknown.] 



Wavey. 



