ARTICLE XXIV.—Recollections of the Swans and Geese of Hudson's Bay. By GEORGE BARNSTON, Esq., of the Hon. Hudson's Bay Company.

(Read before the Montreal Natural History Society.)

The birds comprising the two Genera Cygnus and Anser, are, with slight exception, the largest of the palmipedes or web-footed fowls found in North America, and being generally difficult of approach, and at same time highly prized as an article of food, any account of their migrations and habits becomes interesting. Of the many who may have enjoyed the relish of a well-seasoned wild goose at the sumptuous banquet, few are aware of the distance the bird may have travelled, or of the many perils, by flood and field, through which it may have passed.

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On the coast of Hudson's Bay their manners may be studied to great advantage. There they repose after a long and fatiguing flight, there they enjoy a perfect surfeit on the juicy roots of the swamps, and the tender sprouting herbage of the boundless downs and there assembled in mass along the sea-girt shore, they follow the never-varying course of the points and headlands, that stand out revealed as the line of march of all their ancestors who have gone before them.

CAN. NAT.

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VOL. VI. No. 5.

The swan, except in a few particular localities, is a scarce, rather than a plentiful bird, on the shores of Hudson's Bay. Of somewhat ponderous flight, swans are seen at the same time as the other migratory tribes, winging their way to the secluded recesses of the north, resting themselves throughout the interior, and losing units of their number here and there by the Indian's gun. In the scarcity of their favourite food-the tubers of the Sagittaria sagittifolia-they have recourse to the roots of other plants, and the tender under-ground runners of grasses, in the higher latitudes. They sometimes breed in the interior, before arriving at the coast. I had two eggs brought to me from the borders of a lake near Norway House, lat. nearly 55° N. But it was impossible for me to say, whether these were of the Cygnus Americanus, or C. Buccinator. The probability rests with the former.

Towards Eastmain James's Fort, in James's Bay, a considerable number of swans hatch;—a few are killed by the natives there, who watch the game as it passes up and down narrow rivers communicating with the sea, and flowing from lakes of some magnitude scattered over the interior. In the winter months all the northern regions are deserted by the swans, and from November to April large flocks are to be seen on the expanses of the large rivers of the Oregon territory and California, between the Cascades Range and the Pacific, where the climate is particularly mild, and their favourite food abounds in the lakes and placid waters. Collected sometimes in great numbers their silvery strings embellish the landscape, and form part of the life and majesty of the scene. These societies break up as they advance upon their long spring journey to the north. They are then dispersed in small bands and but few together, each of a pair at last separating and betaking to the cares of the season of incubation. In the most secluded and unfrequented districts, where there is ample water range, they rear the young.

Superior to the swans as an article of food, the geese of every species are tenfold in number, and they form the favourite dish of the Indians of Hudson's Bay. When the long and dreary winter has fully expended itself and the Willow Grouse (Tetrao saliceti) have taken their departure for more northern regions, there is frequently a period of dread starvation to many of the natives, who are generally at that time moving from their wintering grounds to the trading posts. The first note, therefore, of the

large grey or Canada goose, (Bernicla Canadensis,) is listened to with a rapture known only to those who have endured great privations, and gnawing hunger. The melancholy visages brighten, and the tents are filled with hope, to which joy soon succeeds, as the happy father, or hopeful son and brother, returning successful from the hunt, throws down with satisfaction and pride the grateful load.

The Bernicla Canadensis here alluded to is the largest of our geese, and is almost always first seen in the Hudson's Bay Company's Territories. It may be only a single straggler which has lost its mate, or at most five or six together. These are the advanced guard of the serried legions of other water-fowl, which nature and instinct send forth every spring from the south, to occupy during the productive summer, the land of the north, and to partake of the plentiful and luscious repasts that Providence has, during their absence, been storing up for them, in a hidden, yet nascent

state.

The Canada grey goose, as if aware of the general favor in which it is held, spreads itself diffusively over the whole continent. Its disposition has less of wildness in it than that of the snow goose. We come upon it hatching in quiet recesses and corners, surrounded by reedy waters, where "rushes and grasses do most abound." It is at home over the whole wooded portion of the country, equally so in the extensive marshes of the sea coast, and on the mossy barrens of the Chipewyan and Esquimaux lands. During the winter, like other species, it takes refuge in the more temperate portions of the country, courting always open water. I have seen a flock in the strong open current of the St. Lawrence, above Lachine, near Montreal, in the month of January or February, but such an occurrence is rare. In this latitude, say 45° west of the Rocky Mountains, but especially on the coast of the Pacific, they are plentiful during the whole winter, in mild seasons. Before Oregon was settled by the Americans, the Hudson's Bay Company's post of Fort Vancouver used to be supplied by Indian hunters with grey geese, large and small, as well as with occasional swans and white geese; and this at times so liberally, that a day's rations twice a week could be furnished to an establishment of 30 to 40 men. Some of these geese had been killed by the bow and arrow. This game formed our best rations, but it was seldom in such condition as it is to be had in the north, after it has enjoyed a week or two on the feeding grounds. I have no

doubt that the great mass of the grey geese pass their winter to the south of the Platte waters, in the swamps of Florida and the Lower Mississippi, and on the waters of the western side of the continent, towards their outlets into the Pacific. Now that the rifle and fusee have been introduced so plentifully into California and Oregon, it is to be feared that the numbers of the larger wild fowl will decrease rapidly. The bow and arrow formerly thinned them considerably; now the gun, with an increasing population, will have more fatal effect.

The lesser grey goose, (Bernicla Hutchinsii,) arrives in subarctic regions later than the other, and about the same time or shortly before the snow goose, (Anser hyperboreus.) They are shot occasionally in the interior when they alight, and in considerable unmbers at Albany, and elsewhere along the coast of James's and Hudson's Bays. Unlike the large grey goose, it can scarcely be said that they incubate in a scattered and detached manner over the whole extent of the wooded country. They rather proceed in large and united bands, keeping a lofty flight, and making few stoppages until they reach the coast. On arrival there, about the beginning of May, they immediately commence feeding in the salt marshes, on the soft white rooted grasses, continuing to do so for a fortnight or three weeks, and at last becoming quite plump, and capital subjects for the table. When fully in good plight, they take their departure for more arctic regions,at nearly the same time as the snow geese, not to appear again until they return with their young broods in the month of September. These smaller grey geese are killed in fewer numbers than the larger species, on their passage to Hudson's Bay, which may be accounted for by their higher and more continuous flight, but once they settle upon their feeding grounds the tables turn upon them, and the slaughter committed in their ranks is wonderful, and would sate the greatest Nimrod that ever waded swamp.

The Brant goose (Bernicla Brenta,) the Calliwappemaw of the coast Crees, is but little looked after or cared for in Hudson's Bay, being a small species, keeping out to sea on the shoals, and towards lowest watermark, and affording a dish not in high estimation. Their arrival in the north is later than most of the waders and palmipedes.

The snow goose, (Anser hyperboreus,) although it plays a less conspicuous part in the interior of the country, where it seldom alights except along the margins of the larger lakes and streams,

becomes, from its consolidated numbers, the first and greatest object of sport after the flocks alight in James's Bay. The havock spread throughout their ranks increases as the season advances, and their crowds thicken, and even the Indian becomes fatigued with the trade of killing. In the fall of the year, when the flocks of young "wewais" or wavies as they are called are numerous and on the wing between the low tide mark and the marshes, or are following the line of coast southerly, it is no uncommon occurrence for a good shot,between sunrise and sunset,to send to his lodge above a hundred head of game. In such cases the hunter is stationed in what is called a stand—a space from four to five feet square,enclosed by willow twigs and long grass stalks-from which he fires, with forms of geese or "decoys" set up a short distance in his front. The geese fly towards these, when he gives out their peculiar call, and frequently he has his wife or son, or grownup daughter, to load the discharged gun for him, while he fires with the loaded.

These wavies or white geese form the staple article of food, as rations to the men in James's Bay, and are the latest in leaving the coast for southern climes-an event which takes place towards the end of the month of September, although some weak broods and wounded birds linger behind until the first or second week in October. They are deliberate and judicious in their preparation for their great flight southwards, and make their arrangements in a very business-like manner. Leaving off feeding in the swamps. for a day or more, they keep out with the retreating ebb tide, retiring, unwillingly as it were, by steps at its flow, continually occupied in adjusting their feathers, smoothing and dressing themselves with their fatty oil, as athletes might for the ring or race. After this necessary preparation the flocks are ready to take advantage of the first north or north-west wind that blows, and when that sets-in, in less than 24 hours the coast that had been covered patch-like by their whitened squadrons, and wildly resonant with their petulant and incessant calls, is silent as the grave -a deserted, barren, and frozen shore.

The friendly intercourse that exists between these geese and the blue wavies, (Anser or Chen coerulescens) has induced some to suppose that they were merely varieties, which is a mistake. The young white wavies arrive from the north with their parents without mixture of other geese, and they have nearly the same white garb as the old birds, but with their heads of a dirty red