SMALL BIRDS ON MIGRATION CARRIED 

 BY LARGER ONES 



The late Dr John Rae, the well-known Arctic 

 traveller, at a meeting of the Linnean Society read 

 a paper relating to the birds and mammals of 

 Hudson Bay Territories, and in the course of his 

 remarks referred to the assertion of the Cree 

 Indians, both at Moose and York Factory, that a 

 small passerine bird, which was pointed out to him, 

 but the name of which he had forgotten, habitually 

 avails itself of the passage of the Canada Goose 

 when migrating to get a lift in the same direction,, 

 they having frequently seen it fly off from a goose 

 when shot, or shot at, on the wing. All the coast 

 Indians of Hudson's Bay, says Dr Ray, devote a 

 month or more every spring to wildfowl shooting 

 (chiefly geese), the birds killed forming their entire 

 food for the time. As soon as the geese begin ta 

 arrive, the Indian constructs a concealment of 

 willows and grass, usually near a poolof open water, 

 at the edge of which he sets up decoys. When 

 geese are seen approaching, usually flying at a 

 great height, the Indian imitates their call, and the 

 geese, on seeing the decoys, circle round, gradually 

 coming lower down until within shot, when they are 

 fired at. It is from these high-flying geese that the 



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