7834 



Birds. 



smaller gray geese are lulled in fewer numbers than the larger species 

 on their passage to Hudson's Bay, which may be accounted for by 

 their higher and more continuous flight ; but if once they settle upon 

 their feeding-grounds the tables turn upon them, and the slaughter 

 committed in their ranks is wonderful, and would sate the greatest 

 Nimrod that ever waded swamp. 



The Brent goose [A. Brenta), the calliwappemaw of the coast 

 Crees, is but little looked after or cared for in Hudson's Bay, being a 

 small species, keeping out to sea on the shoals and towards lowest 

 water-mark, and affording a dish not in high estimation. Their 

 arrival in the north is later than most of the waders and Palmipedes. 



The snow goose, although it plays a less conspicuous part in the 

 interior of the country, where it seldom alights except along the mar- 

 gins of the larger lakes and streams, becomes, from its consolidated 

 numbers, the first and greatest object of sport after the flocks alight 

 in James's Bay. The havoc spread throughout their ranks increases 

 as the season advances, and their crowds thicken, and even the 

 Tndian becomes fatigued with the trade of killing. Tn the fall of the 

 year, when the flocks of young " wewais," or "wavies" as they are 

 called, are numerous and on the wing between the low-tide mark and 

 the marshes, or are following the line of coast southerly, it is no 

 uncommon occurrence for a good shot, between sunrise and sunset, 

 to send to his lodge above a hundred head of game. Tn such cases 

 the hunter is stationed in what is called a stand, — a space from four 

 to five feet square, enclosed by willow-twigs and long grass-stalks, — 

 from which he fires, with forms of geese or " decoys" set up a short 

 distance in his front. The geese fly towards these, when he gives out 

 their peculiar call, and frequently he has his wife or son, or grown-up 

 daughter, to load the discharged gun for him, while he fires with the 

 loaded. 



These wavies, or white geese, form the staple article of food as 

 rations to the men in James's Bay, and are the latest in leaving the 

 coast for southern climes, an event which takes place towards the end 

 of the month of September, although some weak broods and wounded 

 birds linger behind until the first or second week in October. They 

 are deliberate and judicious in their preparation for their great flight 

 southwards, and make their arrangements in a very business-like 

 manner. Leaving off feeding in the swamps for a day or more, they 

 keep out with the retreating ebb tide, retiring, unwillingly as it were, 

 by steps at its flow, continually occupied in adjusting their feathers, 

 smoothing and dressing themselves with their fatty oil, as athletes 



