Mr. G. Barnston on the Swans and Geese of Hudson’s Bay . 253 
globicera), and probably to want the standing bony crest which 
forms so marked a feature in this species. From the three birds 
brought to me by Jose Ordonez, I am able to state that the 
female differs in no way from the male except in being rather 
smaller in size, and in having the crest on the head rather shorter 
and more tapering. All three specimens were adult, and the 
ovary of the females very plainly developed. Of the sex of the 
male, too, I can speak with equal certainty. Comparing the 
sternum with that of Penelope purpurascens , a very marked 
affinity is observable. The cranial protuberance is attached to 
the skull. It is hollow, the cavity being filled with a cellular 
tissue, as in the bill of a Toucan ( Ramphastos). The enclosing 
hone is extremely fragile, and in the females may easily be 
crushed between the finger and thumb. The crest is deep 
vermilion in colour, also the legs and toes. The bill is a very 
pale straw colour, and the iris white. The male, the day after it 
was killed, weighed 5 lbs. 
11 Hanover Terrace, Regent’s Park, 
May 25 th, 1860. 
XXXI.— Recollections of the Swans and Geese of Hudson’s Bay. 
By George Barnston, of the Hudson's Bay Company's 
Service. 
Swans, except in a few particular localities, are scarce, rather 
than plentiful birds on the shores of Hudson's Bay. They are 
seen at the same time as the other migratory birds, winging 
their way to the secluded recesses of the North, resting through¬ 
out the interior, and losing units of their number here and 
there by the Indian's gun. In the scarcity of their favourite 
food (the roots of the Sagittaria. sagittifolia) , they have recourse 
to those of Equiseta , and the tender underground runners of 
some grasses of the northern latitudes. They sometimes breed 
in the interior before arriving at the coast. I had two eggs 
brought to me from a nest on the banks of a lake near Norway 
House; but I cannot say whether these were of the Cygnus ame- 
ricanus or C. buccinator. Towards Eastmain Fort, in James s 
Bay, a considerable number of Swans hatch ; and a few are killed 
