ANSERINE — THE GEESE — CHEN. 
441 
the shore. It arrives from the north in October, and remains until March, when it 
joins its kindred of other species, and together they depart for more northern regions. 
While in California this bird feeds chiefly on grass, and is very shy and watchful. It 
is generally silent, but at times, chiefly when flying, utters a shrill hoivk. It is hunted 
and shot, and many are brought to market, being considered, when young, better than 
the common Wild Goose. 
This bird occurs in the interior of the continent on all the large lakes, as well as 
on the smaller collections of water. Mr. J. A. Allen met with it in Salt Lake Valley, 
where it begins to arrive in considerable numbers about October 1st, being known 
there as the White Brant. Mr. Bidgway also found it a more or less common winter 
resident or visitant on all the larger lakes of the Great Basin. Captain Bendire 
mentions it as common during the migrations in Eastern Oregon. It is of accidental 
occurrence in the Bermudas, two examples, according to Major Wedderburn, having 
been shot at Riddle’s Bay in October, 1848. 
Hearne, in his Account of his Journey to the Northern Ocean, speaks of the 
White or Snow Goose as being the most numerous of all the species of birds fre- 
quenting the northern part of Hudson’s Bay, and says that it makes its appearance 
about a week or ten days after the common Wild Goose. In the first part of the 
season it arrives in small parties ; but in the middle and toward the latter end comes 
in such amazing numbers, that when they settle in the marshes, the ground for a con- 
siderable distance appears like a field of snow. When feeding in the same marsh 
with A. canadensis, the two species never mingle. Like the latter, it will fly to a call 
resembling its own note ; and in some years it has been killed and salted in great 
numbers for winter consumption, it being almost universally regarded as good eating. 
If proper care be taken in the curing it will continue good for two years. The 
Indians at Hudson’s Bay are said to be far more expert than the Europeans in killing 
this bird, some of them having been known to obtain upward of a hundred in a single 
day, a single Indian commonly killing from a thousand to twelve hundred in a 
season ; but at the time Hearne wrote he was reckoned a good hunter who could kill 
three hundred, as these Geese did not then frequent that region in as great numbers 
as they formerly did. 
Hearne adds that the general breeding-place of this species was not known to the 
Indians of Hudson’s Bay, nor to the Eskimos that frequent the extreme north. The 
general route they take in their return to the south in the fall of the year was 
equally unknown. 
About Hudson’s Bay this bird is said to be the shyest and most watchful of all the 
species of Geese, never suffering an open approach, not even to within two or three 
gunshots. Yet on some of the rivers near Cumberland House, and at Basquian, the 
Indians would occasionally kill twenty at a shot. This was done on moonlight nights, 
when the Geese were sitting in the mud, and the sportsmen were concealed from 
view. 
According to the observations of Dr. Richardson, the Snow Goose in summer feeds 
chiefly on berries, and is seldom seen on the water except during the night or when 
moulting. It frequents the shores of rivers and lakes, and visits both the interior 
and the coasts in its migrations, but resorts in great numbers to the Barren Grounds 
to breed. The eggs are of a yellowish white color, and of a regular ovate form, their 
length being three inches, and their breadth two. The young fly in the middle of 
August, and by the end of September have all departed south. Their food in the 
summer consists of rushes and insects, and in the autumn of berries, particularly 
those of the Empetrum nigrum. When in good condition — as Richardson says — 
vol. i. — 56 
