Читать книгу Birds of Manitoba - Ernest Thompson Seton - Страница 54

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Abundant; migrant; a few breed; common at boundary along Mouse River in late September (Coues). Winnipeg: Summer resident; abundant; a few breed (Hine). Red River Settlement: April 2, 1856, April 1, 1858 (Blakiston). Red River Valley: Abundant in migration; a few breed (Hunter). Breeding on Lake Winnipeg in June (Kennicott). Swamp Island, 1885: First seen, eighteen, on April 14; next seen April 15, when it became common; breeds here; in fall; last seen September 23, 1886; first seen, four, on April 8; bulk arrived April 16 (Plunkett). Ossowa: Common; breeding, 1885; last seen, fifteen, on November 28 (Wagner). Oak Point, 1885, April 7 (Small). Portage la Prairie: Common in spring and fall; a few breed in the marshes near Lake Manitoba; arrives about the middle of April or before should there be open water; departs when all the lakes and rivers are frozen over, usually about the 10th of November (Nash). In 1879, breeding on the Assiniboine, where Brandon now is; also above the rapids (Macoun). Two Rivers, 1885: Great flight April 1; next April 3; common in spring and fall (Criddle). Brandon: Two young taken on the river August 25, 1882 (Wood). Dalton, 1889: First seen, about fifteen, on March 21; next seen on March 22; became common on March 26; was last seen May 10; rarely breeds here (Yoemans). Shell River, 1885: First seen, fifteen, on April 9; afterwards seen nearly every day in the migrating season; odd pairs breed near here (Calcutt). Qu’Appelle: Common summer resident; breeds April 1 to 10 (Guernsey). Carberry: Abundant in migration; rarely breeding south of Souris River; migrant; breeding near Shoal Lake, west (Thompson).

On October 4, 1883, near Shoal Lake, west, I chanced to call at the home of Mr. McMillan, a farmer. There was a flock of six full-grown tame Canadian Geese feeding about the door. Mrs. McMillan informed me that in the spring they found the old goose nesting in the slough near by. The bird was shot, and her seven eggs brought into the house and laid by the stove during the daytime, and at night they were wrapped in flannel and put away. At length they began to hatch. The good wife assisted six of the goslings into the world, but, fearing she had done wrong, allowed No. 7 to work his own passage. The six lived and throve, while No. 7 died. (In the spring of 1884 she still had the brood of swan like birds; they were living in the barnyard in a state of perfect domestication.) The fact that these eggs must have been chilled nightly, and in the daytime exposed to a dry, unnatural heat, shows the wonderful vitality possessed by wild eggs.

Another farmer, living near Carberry, added some geese to his barnyard in the same way, but, I believe, they did not breed in confinement.

49a. Branta canadensis hutchinsii. Hutchins’s Goose.

In September a very small young bird, taken on Red River by Robert Kennicott (Baird). Portage la Prairie: Common in spring and fall only; have not been able to discover that it breeds near here (Nash).