140 SEA FOWL IN NOVA SCOTIA — GILPIN. 



running through the eyes and on the nape of the neck, the dark 

 wing coverts, and black bill and feet. In 1874, I saw two speci- 

 mens of the same shot on Halifax common, and in the collection 

 of my friend, Mr. Downs, who considered them the young of the 

 snow goose. With every respect for one who may be called the 

 best field naturalist in the Dominion, I cannot reconcile the black 

 bill and legs with Wilson's description of the pale lake or reddish 

 purple of the bills and feet of the young snow geese shot on the 

 Delaware River, and must maintain my opinion. These are the 

 only specimens I have seen. 



Of the Canada goose, his migrations may be said to be regular 

 in the Spring. From after the middle of March to about the 

 middle of April, numerous flocks pass over the land, going north- 

 eastwards, and scattered parties, of half a dozen or more, are 

 found feeding along the shores of the tide ponds and salt estuaries 

 of the Bay of Fundy, the Atlantic coasts, and especially the shores 

 of Cape Breton. Should heavy north-easters prevail these flights 

 -are driven down in numbers to the land, and thus every few 

 years wild geese are plentiful in Halifax market during April. 

 I have noted 10th April. 1879, one being shot at Digby, near the 

 Bay of Fundy. The Brants also pass about the same time of 

 Spring, but are less noticed, except during a long period of foggy 

 weather, when they seem bewildered, and cover the flats in 

 hundreds and are easily shot. The autumn migration of the 

 geese and brants is less noticed. I have no notes of their alight- 

 ing, but several of the peculiar note of tie wild geese heard in 

 October, November, and indeed midwinter. During one Spring, 

 about 1870, the brants remained about Digby, N. S., till the 

 middle of May, becoming very fat though arriving very lean. 

 That these geese, as well as the snow goose, once bred in num- 

 bers on the salt marshes of Annapolis County, and that their 

 habits have been altered by advancing population, is well proved 

 by old writers. The early French writers notice the abundance 

 of "outards," both white and grey, that bred on the Port Royal 

 marshes, the white being no doubt the snow goose ; and those 

 bred from wild eggs, and carried to France as a royal present, 

 still existed in their decendants, which thronged by hundreds, 





