222 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Peculiar cry Manners. 



mutual encouragement, or only the necessary 

 consequence of respiration, seems somewhat 

 doubtful; but they seldom exert it when they 

 alight in their journeys. On the ground they 

 always arrange themselves in a line, and seem to 

 descend rather for rest than refreshment; for, 

 having continued in this manner for an hour or 

 two, one of them with a long loud note sounds a 

 kind of signal to which the rest always punctu- 

 ally attend, and rising in a group they pursue 

 their journey with alacrity. Their flight is con- 

 ducted with vast regularity: they always pro- 

 ceed either in a line a-breast, or in two lines 

 joining in an angle at the middle. In this order 

 they generally take the lead by turns; the fore- 

 most falling back in the rear when tired, and the 

 next in station succeeding to his duty. Their 

 track is generally so high, that it is almost im- 

 possible to reach them from a fowling-piece; 

 and even when this can be done, they file so 

 equally that one discharge very seldom kills more 

 than a single bird. 



They breed in the plains and marshes about 

 Hudson's Bay, in North America : in some years 

 the young ones are taken in considerable num- 

 bers; and at this age they are easily tamed. It 

 is, however, extremely singular, that they will 

 never learn to eat corn, unless some of the old 

 ones are taken along with them ; which may be 

 done when these are in a moulting state. 



