205 



ANIMALS IN MENAGERIES. 



begin calling aloud, until the -whole flock approaches 

 so near as to give them an opportunity to fire two and 

 sometimes three loaded muskets among them, by which 

 great havoc is made. 



In reference to the extraordinary instinct of the 

 wounded wild-goose to join the migrating flocks in the 

 spring, Wilson affirms, that instances have come to his 

 knowledge, where, in birds but slightly injured, this has 

 actually taken place ; the birds having perfectly succeed- 

 ed in mounting into the higher regions of the air, and 

 joining a passing flock which was on its way northward. 

 Still more extraordinary is the fact, attested by several 

 respectable eye-witnesses, of instances where these half- 

 domesticated birds, after they performed their northern 

 migrations, have actually returned to their former 

 habitations. But we have already extended the limits 

 of this article, however interesting, to such an unusual 

 length, that we must advert to the subject on a future 

 occasion. 



According to Dr. Richardson, the arrival of this 

 well-known bird in the fur countries is anxiously looked 

 for, and hailed with great joy, by the natives of the 

 woody and swampy districts, who depend principally 

 upon it for subsistence during the summer. It makes 

 its first appearance in flocks of twenty or thirty ; and 

 these are regularly decoyed within gunshot by the 

 hunters, who set up stakes, and imitate their call. Two 

 or three or more are so frequently killed at a single 

 shot, that the usual price of a goose is a charge of am- 

 munition. One goose, which, wdien fat, weighs about 

 nine pounds, is the daily ration for one of the Hud- 

 son's Bay company's servants during the season, and is 

 reckoned equivalent to two snow geese, or three ducks, 

 or eight pounds of buffalo and moose meat, or two 

 pounds of pemmican, or a pint of maize and four ounces 

 of suet. About three weeks after their first appearance, 

 the Canada geese disperse in pairs throughout the coun- 

 try, between the 50th and 67th parallels, to breed ; at 

 which time they retire from the shores of Hudson's 



