of the iiudsoh’s bat tebbitoby. 
139 
The Canada goose, on the contrary, stops by the way to feed, 
especially on the lakes and swamps where there is wild rice, 
which makes both geese and ducks much finer eating than any 
other kind of food I know. Both the white and blue wavy 
are excellent eating, and one of them with a pound of flour 
or bread, is given as a day’s rations, and is much liked by the 
men, especially when fresh. Many thousands are annually cured 
with salt, and packed in barrels for use at the Hudson’s Bay 
Company’s stations on the coast ; and the Indians bone and 
dry a great number for winter food. 
All species of grouse in British North America have a well 
known habit of passing the night under the snow, during the 
winter, to protect themselves from the cold; but possibly a practice 
which most of them follow more or less when the snow is not too 
hard packed may not have been generally observed. The bird 
is not content to make its resting place close to the door by 
which it has entered the snow, but usually bores a tunnel a few 
inches under the surface, three or more feet in length, before 
settling down for the night. The cause for going through so 
much, apparently, useless labour was at first difficult to under- 
stand, for its bed would have been equally warm had the bird 
remained within a foot of where it had entered the snow, but 
a little more experience taught me to admire the acuteness and 
intelligence of the proceeding, for during my walks in the woods 
I frequently came to places where a fox, lynx, or other carnivore 
had in the night approached cautiously (judging by the short 
steps) and made a long spring on the entrance hole ; the occupant 
was not there, however, but had flown up 3 or 4 feet off, as seen 
by its exit in the snow, and was thus saved from almost certain 
death. 
The prairie-hen, which is fairly numerous near Moose, shows 
great carefulness in this respect, and in very cold weather takes 
its “ siesta ” between breakfast and supper under the snow, 
out of which I have often seen them pop their heads, without 
taking wing, before I had got within shot, no doubt to observe 
if an enemy were approaching. 
Without counting the small white grouse peculiar to the 
Rocky Mountains, I believe there are three other species to be 
found at or near the Arctic coast. 
First and chief among these is the Willow-grouse ( T . saliceti), 
by far the most numerous, and forming an important article of 
