PLATE CCXXII. 



This fpecies is larger than the common Goofe, its weight about 

 nine or ten pounds, and the length forty fix inches. 



It is chiefiy in the northern parts of America that thefe birds abound, 

 and especially in Canada : they extend during the fummer feafon as 

 far as Greenland, to the northward^ and fouthvvard in the winter to the 

 Britifti Illes. As a naturalized fpecies it is obferved Hill further to the 

 fouth, being reared and bred freely in France as well as England. 

 The flelh of the young birds is eaten, and their feathers are held in 

 fome efteem. According to Dr. Latham, on the Great Canal at 

 Verfailles hundreds are feen mixing with the fwans with the greateft 

 cordiality, and the fame at Chantilly ; and in England likewife, they 

 are thought a great ornament to die pieces of water in gentlemen's plea- 

 fure grounds. They are very familiar. 



About Hudfon's Bay this ufeful fpecies breeds in confiderable 

 numbers, though the greater portion of them retire yet more northerly 

 lor the purpofes of incubation. Their firfl appearance in the bay isj ' 

 from about the middle of April to the middle of May, when the in- 

 habitants wait for them with expe6tation, being one of the chief 

 articles of their food, and many years kill to the amount of three or four 

 thoufand of them : thefe they fait and barrel for ufe. But thofe birds 

 which they kill in their return from the norths which happens in 

 Auguft, September, and October, they keep frefh for a winter ftore, 

 in the fame manner as they preferve other wild fowl during the winter 

 feafon ; that is by putting them, unplucked of their feathers, into large 

 holes dug in the earth, which they ilightly cover with mould, and clofe 

 up the w hole with ice and fnow ; and fuch is the feverity of the winter 

 feafon, in that climate, that with this precaution merely, they may be 

 eafily kept frefti for months. 



Wo 



