THE CANADA GOOSE. 179 



present day, by many of the lakes, lagoons, and large streams of our Western 

 Districts, on the Missouri, the Mississippi, the lower parts of the Ohio, on 

 Lake Erie, the lakes farther north, and in several large pools situated in the 

 interior of the eastern parts of the States of Massachusetts and Maine. As 

 you advance farther toward the east and north, you find it breeding more 

 abundantly. While on my way to Labrador, I found it in the Magdeleine 

 Islands, early in June, sitting on its eggs. In the Island of Anticosti there 

 is a considerable stream, near the borders of which great numbers are said 

 to be annually reared; and in Labrador these birds breed in every suitable 

 marshy plain. The greater number of those which visit us from still more 

 northern regions, return in the vernal season, like many other species, to 

 the dismal countries which gave them birth. 



Few if any of these birds spend the winter- in Nova Scotia, my friend 

 Mr. Thomas MacCulloch having informed me that he never saw one 

 about Pictou at that period. In spring, as they proceed northward, thou- 

 sands are now and then seen passing high in the air; but in autumn, the 

 flocks are considerably smaller, and fly much lower. During their spring 

 movements, the principal places at which they stop to wait for milder days 

 are Bay Chaleur, the Magdeleine Islands, Newfoundland, and Labrador, at 

 all of which some remain to breed and spend the summer. 



The general spring migration of the Canada Goose, may be stated to com- 

 mence with the first melting of the snows in our Middle and Western Dis- 

 tricts, or from the 20th of March to the end of April; but the precise time 

 of its departure is always determined by the advance of the season, and the 

 vast flocks that winter in the great savannahs or swampy prairies south-west 

 of the Mississippi, such as exist in Opellousas, on the borders of the Arkansas 

 river, or in the dismal "Everglades" of the Floridas, are often seen to take 

 their flight, and steer their course northward, a month earlier than the first 

 of the above mentioned periods. It is indeed probable that the individuals 

 of a species most remote from the point at which the greater number ulti- 

 mately assemble, commence their flight earlier than those which have passed 

 the winter in stations nearer to it. 



It is my opinion that all the birds of this species, which leave our States 

 and territories each spring for the distant north, pair before they depart. 

 This, no doubt, necessarily results from the nature of their place of summer 

 residence, where the genial season is so short as scarcely to afford them suf- 

 ficient time for bringing up their young and renewing their plumage, before 

 the rigours of advancing winter force them to commence their flight towards 

 milder countries. This opinion is founded on the following facts: — I have 

 frequently observed large flocks of Geese, in ponds, on marshy grounds, or 

 even on dry sand-bars, the mated birds renewing their courtship as early as 



