Читать книгу Birds of Manitoba - Ernest Thompson Seton - Страница 52

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Abundant spring migrant; less common in the fall; abundant during migration along the boundary (Coues). Winnipeg: Transient visitor; abundant; going north to breed (Hine). Red River Valley: Transient visitor; abundant (Hunter). Swampy Island: 1885, first seen, four, on May 7; next seen on May 10, after which it disappeared; never common; does not breed, and is rare on this lake (Plunkett). Migrant at Shoal Lake (Gunn). Ossowa (Wagner). Portage la Prairie: 1884, abundant spring visitor to the large grass marshes near Portage la Prairie, but rarely seen in the autumn in that neighborhood; near Winnipeg it is, however, not uncommon in October; first seen April 23, 1884 (Nash). Carberry: Seen in enormous numbers in spring, and in much less numbers in the fall (Thompson). Little Saskatchewan, near St. Martin’s Lake: Wavies, as the half-breeds term them (Wa-wain Cree) (Anser hyperboreus), flying to the south early this morning in large flocks, were regarded as a sure sign of approaching winter (Sept. 27, 1858, Hind). Two Rivers: 1885, first seen, one, on April 6; next seen, four, on April 18; migrant (Criddle). Qu’Appelle: Transient; passing over May 3 to 28 (Guernsey). Severn House (Murray).

In Hudson’s Bay they are the shyest and most watchful of all the species of geese, never suffering an open approach, not even within two or three gunshots. Yet in some of the rivers near Cumberland House and at Basquian the Indians frequently kill twenty at one shot; but this is only done in moonlight nights, when the geese are sitting on the mud and the sportsmen are perfectly concealed from their view. (Hearne, 1795.)

In April the ducks and geese return in great numbers, become plentiful, and feed in numerous flocks in all the marshes fringing the lakes for at least a month and a half. The gray geese and ducks draw off by degrees in May, but the white geese (wawee) come generally in the last week of April, and begin to clear away for Hudson’s Bay on the 13th or 14th of May, where they invariably arrive on the 15th of May. The last of them leave here from the 20th to the 25th of the same month. (D. Gunn.)

These birds pass over the country in countless numbers each spring, generally arriving in large bands about the 15th of May, although I have seen stragglers as early as the 28th of April. A great number of immense flocks generally remain in the Province for a couple of weeks to “take in sand” and feed. They are very easily shot while on the gravel grounds; they appear very stupid (i. e., in the morning and evening). When not taking in sand and gravel they are very difficult to approach and are as wary as any geese. These birds are rarely seen in the autumn. The half-breeds say that they do not pass over Manitoba on their return, but take a more western course. Although I have spent two weeks every October for the past 15 years in shooting, I have never seen more than an occasional flock of perhaps fifty birds in the autumn. (Hunter, in MSS.)