Birds. 



7337 



be, the proportion for the autumn hunt, but it is probably nearer three- 

 fourths, and we have thus 60,000, in round numbers, brought down 

 from the newly-fledged flocks, as they pass southernwavd along the 

 bay. I have lately been informed by an old and experienced hunter 

 that he believes that for every goose that is killed above twenty must 

 leave the bay without scaith, as although there is sometimes destruc- 

 tion dire among some lots that approach the gun, and that feed in 

 quarters frequented by hunters, yet innumerable families of them 

 alight on remote and quiet feeding-ground, remain there unmolested, 

 and take wing when the cold sets in, with their numbers intact. 

 I must allow the correctness of this remark, and the deduction to be 

 drawn from it is that 1,200,000 geese leave their breeding-grounds by 

 the Hudson's Bay line of march for the genial south. Of the numbers 

 to the westward along the arctic coast that wend their way to their 

 winter quarters straight across the continent, we can form but a very 

 vague opinion, but computing it at two-thirds or more of the quantity 

 supposed to leave the eastern part of the arctic coast, we cannot have 

 less than two millions of geese composing the numerous battalions 

 which pass over the continent between the Atlantic and the Rocky 

 Mountains, borne aloft generally like the scud, and as swiftly hastened 

 on by the force of the boreal blast. 



I ought to observe that the Brent geese (Anser Brenta) are not 

 included in the above estimate. They are pretty numerous on the 

 Atlantic coast, but are quite neglected by the Indians in general of 

 Hudson's Bay. 



Two small species of south-west habitat, the Dendrocygna autumn- 

 alis and D. fulva, never come north, so far as I know. I have never 

 seen the first, but have shot one out of a pair of the latter on the 

 banks of the Columbia, above Okanagan. This, I daresay, is usually 

 its limit to the north, and I believe it has never been seen to the 

 eastward of the great stony ridge. Neither of these elegant little 

 geese ever visit Hudson's Bay. 



The Nest and Eggs of the Bohemian Waxwing* 



The first intimation I received from Mr. Wolley that the discovery 

 was accomplished was contained in a letter written by him on his 



* Extracted from a paper in the 'Ibis' for January, 1861, intituled " Particulars 

 of Mr. J. Wolley's Discovery of the Breeding 1 of the Waxwing (Ampelis garridvs), 

 Linn.), by Allied Newton, M.A., F.L.S.," and kindly communicated by the author. 



