BRITISH BIRDS* 
295 
Japan,— and on the American continent from Hud- 
fon*s Bay to South Carolina : he alfo obferves that 
our voyagers have met with them in the Straits of 
Magellan, Port Egmont in the Falkland Iflands, 
Terra del Fuego, and New Holland. There can 
be little doubt about the territories alEgned to them 
for their fummer refidences and breeding places ; 
the lakes, fwamps, and dreary moraffes of Siberia, 
Lapland, Iceland, and the unfrequented' or un- 
known northern regions of America feem fet apart 
for that purpofe, where, with multitudes of other 
kinds, in undifturbed fecurity they rear their young, 
and are amply provided with a variety of food, a 
large portion of which mufl confifl of the larvae of 
the gnats which fwarm in thofe parts, and the my- 
riads of infers that are foftered by the unfetting 
fun. Pennant fays that thefe Wild Geefe appear in 
Hudfon’s Bay early in May, as foon as the ice dif- 
appears colled: in flocks of twenty or thirty, flay 
about three weeks, then feparate in pairs, and take 
off to breed ; that about the middle of Augufl: they 
return to the marflies with their young, and con- 
tinue there till September. Some of them are 
caught and brought alive to the fadories, where 
they are fed with corn, and thrive greatly. 
Wild Geefe are very deftrudive to the growing 
corn in the fields where they happen to halt in their 
migratory excurfions. In fome countries they are 
caught at thofe feafons in long nets, refembling 
