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;geese of three sorts, \h : Braiit-gccsc, which arc pied, and 

 White-geese, v/hich arc bigger than the tame geese of Eng- 

 Hand, with black legs, black bills, and head and neck black. 

 'There is of them a great abundance; I have had often a 

 thousand of them before the mouth of my gun." William 

 Wood in his " New England's Prospect," published in 1634, 

 says, the "Ducks of the country Ijc very large ones, and in 

 ;great abundance. So there is of Teal likewise, and if I 

 should tell you some have killed a hundred geese in aw^eek, 

 tfifty ducks at a shot, forty teal at another, it maybe counted 

 almost impossible, though nothing is more certain." There 

 is but little doubt, that our Puritan ancestors subsisted to a 

 ■considerable degree, upon the w^atcr fowls they shot in 

 Plymouth and Massachusetts bays during the first winter 

 they landed on our shores. All the early historians notice 

 three distinct species of the goose, and their being very abun- 

 dant — These are the Brant, Wild or Canada Goose and the 

 White Goose. The latter now known as the Snow Goose 

 '(^Anser-hi/perboreas of Auduboii) has become very rare on 

 -our coast. It is an interesting, beautiful, and distinct species, 

 and it is now many years since I have seen a specimen 

 John Josselyn published in 1672 his " New England's Rari- 

 ties" and his two voyages to New England and there de- 

 scribed the animal and vegetable productions of the country 

 — It is a queer book indeed, about the size of a New England 

 Primer, with rude cuts — It was noticed more than one hun- 

 dred years ago, with a good deal of distrust by Peter Collin- 

 son of London, in a letter to John Bartram, under date of 

 February, 1757 — Friend Peter says, "I wish my good friend 

 •John Bartram w^ould peruse a little tract called " New Eng- 

 lands Parities" by John Josselyn Gentleman, and see his 

 account of the White Mountains, which is very extraordina- 

 ry. If it was peaceable times, who knows Ibut thee John 

 might be tempted to make them a visit ? What was his 

 Phil-han-now, a monstrous great bird ? Josselyn must have 

 a fine palate, and a good digestion, to say a Turkey Buzzard 

 was good meat. His Porcupine shooting his quills, is a vul- 

 gar error. Pray see his account of the Moose Deer, I don't 

 know how to distinguish between his Raccoon, and his Jackal 

 — are they all one ? I presume he must have mistook a 

 Panther for a Lion, especially for a she Lion But Lions are 

 never found in such cold climates. Does he not exaggerate 

 in his article of frogs a foot high; and that some of them are 



