32. _Outardes_. Sometimes written _houtardes_, and _Oltardes_. The name outarde or bustard, the _otis_ of ornithologists, a land bird of Europe, was applied to a species of goose in Canada at a very early period. The outarde is mentioned by Cartier in 1535, and the name may have been originally applied by the fishermen and fur-traders at a much earlier period, doubtless on account of some fancied resemblance which they saw to the lesser bustard or outarde, which was about the size of the English pheasant. _Vide Pennant's British Zoology_, Vol. I. p. 379. Cartier, Champlain, Lescarbot, Baron La Hontan, Potherie, and Charlvoix mention the outarde in catalogues of water-fowl in which _oye_, the goose, is likewise mentioned. They very clearly distinguish it from the class which they commonly considered _oyes_, or geese. Cartier, for instance, says, Il y a aussi grand nombre d'oyseaulx, scauoir grues, signes, _oltardes, oyes sauuages, blanches, & grises_. Others speak of _outardes et oyes_. They do not generally describe it with particularity. Champlain, however, in describing the turkey, _cocq d'Inde_, on the coast of New England, says, _aussi gros qu'vne outarde, qui est une espece d'oye_. Father Pierre Biard writes, _et au mesme temps les outardes arriuent du midy, qui sont grosses cannes au double des nostres_. From these statements it is obvious that the outarde was a species of goose, but was so small that it could well be described as a large duck. In New France there were at least four species of the goose, which might have come under the observation of the early navigators and explorers. We give them in the order of their size, as described in Coues' Key to North American Birds. 1. Canada Goose, _Branta Canadensis_, SCOPOLI, 36 inches. 2. Snow Goose, _Anser hyperboreus_, LINNAEUS, 30 inches. 3. Am. White-fronted Goose, _Anser albifrons_, LINNAEUS, 27 inches. 4. Brant Goose, _Branta bernicla_, SCOPOLI, 24 inches.