CHEN ALBATUS. 99 



wooden decoys by calling, and fires as they pass. These Geese form the 

 staple article of food for rations at the Albany Factory. They are the last 

 to leave the coast for southern climes ; and this takes place generally towards 

 the end of the month of September, some weak broods and wounded birds 

 lingering to the first w^eek of October. They are deliberate and judicious in 

 their preparations for their long flight, and make their arrangements in a 

 very business-like manner. They leave off^ feeding in the marshes for a day 

 or more, keeping out with the retreating ebb tide, and retiring as it were 

 by steps, unwiUingly, at its flow, adjusting their feathers continually, and 

 dressing them with their fatty oil. They are then ready for the first north 

 or north-westerly wind that blows ; and in twenty-four hours' time the coast 

 that had been resonant with their petulant and incessant cries, and covered 

 patch-like by their whitened squadrons, is silent and deserted— a barren and 

 frozen shore. 



^'The friendly intercourse that exists between these Geese and the 

 Blue Wavies (the Anser ccjerulescens) has perhaps induced some to suppose 

 that they were merely varieties ; but this is a mistake. The young White 

 Wavies arrive from the north with their parents, without mixture of other 

 Geese in the flocks ; and they have the same white garb as the old birds, but 

 with the head as if it had been soiled with rust of iron, and the bill (as is 

 well known with young birds) tender, soft, and compressible , while, on the 

 other hand, the Anser ccerulescens comes down upon the eastern coast, also in 

 perfectly distinct flocks, the young birds having a more diffused and darker 

 blue colour, as w^ell as being of smaller size, with the beak softer and the flesh 

 more tender. About this there can be no mistake. 



" In the spring, James's Bay is frequently crossed by both species of the 

 Wavy, at Capes Jones and Henrietta Maria ; and occasionally two or three 

 Blue may be seen in a large flock of White on the Albany shore, while two 

 or three White may be also observed accompanying the full flocks of Blue on 

 the Eastmain side. But this is not singular, as their cry is almost the same, 

 and they are certainly closely aUied species — but not varieties." 



