254 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 
Although it be two years since the events above narrated 
occurred, the impression on my memory is so distinct and 
pleasurable, that I feel convinced it never will be forgotten. 
In fact, I regard it as one of those episodes that give an 
ample reward to the sportsman for weeks, yes, months, of 
lack of success and wasted toil. 
CANADA GOOSE. 
The Canada goose is a magnificent bird, and although 
smaller than that of Europe, occupies the same place to the 
New World that the common wild goose does to the Old. 
The plumage is of a dark slate-color along the neck, breast, 
and stomach, gradually becoming black toward the back 
and wing coverts; the head, also, is black, with a clear 
white ring around the throat, immediately behind the junc- 
tion with the head. Its average weight is about twelve 
pounds. 
From thirty-five degrees of north latitude the Canada 
goose is found in greater or less numbers, according to 
season and the closeness of settlements, to beyond the Arc- 
tic Circle, their favorite breeding - places being upon the 
‘marshes and lakes from whence flow the rivers that enter 
the Polar Seas. Consequently they are not to be found 
upon the popular shooting-grounds or waters of the United 
States and Canada until severe weather has set in over the 
Hudson Bay territory, when they migrate in thousands 
south, either following the coast-line or the course of rivers 
flowing from north to south. 
On the Chesapeake Bay and the various inlets along the 
coast of Virginia and North Carolina, I have seen them in 
great numbers; still the wet prairies of the West exceed 
all other localities in the immensity of hordes that visit 
them. 
During the middle of the day, unless the weather has 
