ir»os.] 



BIKDS. 



301 



It was evidently a bird of the 3^ear. The back was grayish, the head 

 tinged with rusty, the bill, feet, and legs dull black. The wing meas- 

 ured -1:^5 ; exposed culmen, 63. A bird killed at Fort Simpson May 

 7. 1904, measured as follows: Wing, 114; exposed culmen, 51. 



During F^\anklin's first journey to the Arctic Sea, snow geese were 

 seen passing southward about September 1, 1820, at Winter Lake, 

 near Fort Enterprise ; ^ large flocks were observed feeding on crow- 

 berries at Point Lake on September 12 of the same jesiv? During 

 the following summer snow geese were observed near Parry Bay, 

 Melville Sound, on August 13/ Thomas Simpson states that numer- 

 ous snow geese had bred on the borders of lakes on Victoria Land 

 opposite Kent Peninsula.^ Walker saw a flock at Port Kennedy in 

 June, 1859.^ Kennicott noted the first arrivals at Fort Resolution on 

 May 17, 1860; f and Baird, Brewer, and Ridgwa}^ record two speci- 

 mens taken there by him on May 26.^^ Pike found the species abun- 

 dant near Lake Mackay June 11, 1890, when they were still " resting 

 by thousands, waiting till the warm weather should have melted the 

 snow from their feeding grounds along the seacoast.'' 



The dates of spring arrival of this species at Fort Chipewyan, dur- 

 ing a series of years, appear in a table given on page 23. 



Chen caerulescens (Linn.). Blue Goose. 



This beautiful goose, Avhich breeds, so far as known, onl}^ in 

 northern Ungava,has been observed on a few occasions in the Macken- 

 zie region. As the birds are well known to accompany flocks of snow 

 geese migrating northward along the western coast of James Bay, it 

 is not unlikely that an occasional individual may keep Avith these 

 flocks instead of turning off to its usual summer home, and eventually 

 return southward by way of southern Mackenzie. 



Richardson stated that it had been seen at Fort Enterprise and 

 Slave Lake.' While in the north I was informed by Da^dd McPher- 

 son, of Fort Simpson, that a few years ago a blue goose (probably 

 this species) was shot at Willow River, near Fort Providence. 



Chen rossi (Cassin). Ross Snow Goose. 



This diminutive snow goose, usually called ' scabby-nosed wavey ' 

 at Great Slave Lake, is a regular spring and autumn migrant over 



« Narrative Journey to Polar Sea, p. 230, 1823. 

 ^ Ibid., p. 234, 1823. 

 c Ibid., p. 382, 1823. 



^Narrative Discoveries on North Coast of America, p. 383, 1843. 

 e Proc. Roy. Soc. Dublin, III, p. 65, 1860. 

 f Trans. Chicago Acad. Sci., I, p. 171, 1869. 

 9 Water Birds N. A., I, p. 444, 1884. 



Barren Ground of Northern Canada, p. 161, 1892. 

 * Appendix Parry's Second Voyage, p. 365, 1825 (1827). 



