430 FIEST HISTORICAL NOTICE. [CHAP. xni. 



powerful perfume of flowers, trees, and sweet-smelling 

 herbs. 



Our poor solitary bird soon settled in his new home. 

 He wanted much to make friends and enter into society 

 with the common Geese ; but they, having goslings, 

 would scarcely allow him, and his disappointment was 

 expressed by uttering sounds very like those proceeding 

 from a rusty sign swinging in the wind ; for another 

 merit of these birds is that they are not noisy, like 

 most Geese. What voice they have, though not melo- 

 dious, is too weak to give annoyance by its discordance. 

 We soon, however, had occasion to change our opinion 

 as to the mildness and peacefulness of disposition in 

 our little Sandwicher. They are certainly sociable 

 creatures, like the generality of the Anserine, but no 

 disposition has ever been observed in them to mix with 

 any but their own kind. 



The first recorded notice, by civilized man, of the 

 Bernicla Sandvicensis, is given by Capt. James Cook a 

 few weeks before he received his death- wound at Owhy- 

 hee. He had only a little while previously lost Mr. 

 Anderson, the amiable and observant naturalist and 

 surgeon to his ship, by a lingering consumption ; other- 

 wise fuller details might have reached us. But brief 

 as it is, it is worth transcribing. Its date is December 

 22, 1778. " While we lay, as it were, becalmed, seve- 

 ral of the islanders came off with hogs, fowls, fruit, and 

 roots. Out of one canoe we got a Goose, which was 

 about the size of a Muscovy Duck. Its plumage was 

 dark grey, and the bill and legs black." 



In ornithological books the earliest trace of the 

 Sandwich Bernicle occurs in Dr. Latham, 1785. De- 



