126 Canadian Record of Science. 
nearly all my spare time, at these seasons, was spent in 
shooting and acquiring some knowledge of the peculiarities 
of the game I was in pursuit of. First let me say some- 
hing of that magnificent bird, the Canada Goose (Anser 
Canadensis), one of the finest of its order in the world. 
This is the earliest of the spring water-fowl migrants, and 
makes its appearance at Moose, with extreme regularity, on 
the 23rd of April. So much is this the case that during my 
ten years stay there, we had a goose at our mess dinner 
table on St. George’s day, first seen and shot on that day ; 
and this I learnt had been the case for a long series of 
years previously. I may add that this species of goose 
arrived with about equal regularity at York Factory, lati- 
tude 57° N., 420 miles further north, but a week later. 
The Cree Indians, at both these places, assert positively 
that a small brown bird uses this goose as a convenient 
means of transport to the north, and that they have been 
often seen flying off when their aerial conveyance was 
either shot or shot at. The little passenger has been point- 
ed out to me, but I have forgotten its name. Certainly it 
makes its appearance at the same time these geese do, 
which, by the way, are the only kind that are said to carry 
passengers. The natives of the Mackenzie River, more 
than a 1000 miles to the south-west, tell the same story, 
so I believe in its truth. 
According to my experience and belief, there is another, 
but less numerous, variety of the Canada goose; the male 
of this bird is usually distinguished by a ruddy brown 
colour of the plumage on the breast, by the extreme loud- 
ness and sonorousness of the call, and by the so much 
greater size, that there is a difference made in the quantity 
served out as rations to the men. The line of flight of this 
larger variety is also different, as they pass chiefly by 
Rupert’s River, about 100 miles to the east of Moose, and 
thence on to the east main coast of Hudson’s Bay, on which 
lands they breed, not going very far north, nor crossing as 
far as I know, Hudson’s Strait—as none are mentioned as 
having been seen at the Meteorological station, under Mr, 
