284 BRITISH BIRDS^ 
and is in every refpedl as valuable as the Com- 
mon Goofe : it is alfo accounted a great ornament 
on ponds near gentlemen’s feats. BuiFon fays — 
Within thefe few years, many hundreds inhabit- 
ed the great canal at Verfailles, where they lived fa- 
miliarly with the Swans ; they were oftener on the 
gralfy margins than in the water. There is at pre- 
fent a great number of them on the magnificent 
pools that decorate the charming gardens of Chan- 
tilly.” The wild flock whence thefe birds were 
taken are found in the northern parts of America ; 
they are one of thofe immenfe families which, when 
affociated with others of the fame genus, are faid, 
at certain feafons, to darken the air like a cloud, 
and -to fpread themfelves over the lakes and fwamps 
in innumerable multitudes. 
Mr Pennant, in his Ardlic Zoology, gives the 
following interefling account of the mode of taking 
the Canada Goofe in Hudfon’s Bay ; — 
The Englifh of Hudfon’s Bay depend greatly 
on Geefe, of thefe and other kinds, for their fup- 
port ; and, in favourable years, kill three or four 
thoufand, v/hich they fait and barrel. Their arri- 
val is impatiently attended ; it Is the harbinger of 
the fpring, and the month named by the Indians 
the Go^e moon. They appear ufually at our fet- 
tlements in numbers, about St George’s day, O. S. 
and fly northward to neflle in fecurity. They pre- 
fer iflands to the continent, as further from the 
