•2 12 HowLEY on the Canada Goose. [October 



they are generally to be found in daytime. Here they feed on the 

 ■wild berries, of which the common blueberry, jDartridge berry, 

 marsh berry, and a small black berry {^Einfetrum nigru77i) 

 aftbrd them an abundant supply. They are exceedingly wary at 

 this season, and there is no approaching them at all on the bar- 

 rens. The only means of getting a shot at them, and that nsvially 

 adopted by the fishermen, is to erect a kind of blind, termed a 

 gaze., near the margins of the estuaries or lagoons most frequent- 

 ed by the birds, and within easy range of their favorite resting 

 places. The gaze is formed of a rough, semi-circular frame- 

 work of bush and small trees, inside of which a couple of 

 persons may lie concealed. This contrivance must be constructed 

 prior to the time when the birds are expected to arrive, so that 

 ■they may see and become familiar with it, otherwise, such is their 

 suspicious nature, they would leave the place altogether, or at 

 least avoid the immediate neighborhood of the gaze, keeping 

 well out of shot. If unsuspicious of danger they will swim about 

 in close phalanx, and when within easy range, the concealed 

 hunters pour heavy charges of large shot from their huge sealing- 

 guns into them, and frequently do great execution. The long 

 and patient watch during a cold October night, however, takes 

 away much of the pleasurable element from this rather unsports- 

 manlike mode of hunting, and as a consequence few resort to it 

 except the hardy fisherman and patient Indian, to whom the 

 killing of a few couples of Geese means a good night's work. I 

 have myself frequently tried to steal a march upon the Geese 

 dui'ing a dark night in a canoe, but never succeeded in getting 

 within shot. 



During the spring migration a nearly similar plan is adopted 

 by the fishermen to that described above, the only diffei'ence 

 being that the gaze is erected on the ice, near open water, in our 

 bays and fiords, the gaze itself being built of blocks of ice and 

 snow. Wlien the Geese alight, in these open places during the 

 nio-ht, they will swim along by the edge of the ice, picking the 

 goose grass which may be washed up against it, quite unsus- 

 picious of danger till they are suddenly fired upon from the ice 

 gaze. A great number are sometimes killed in this way. 



I am, credibly informed that many of these first arrivals, when 

 opened, have been found to contain undigested grains of Indian 

 corn. This circumstance I think argues strongly in favor of tlie 



