saddleback and white mountain sheep have recently been discovered in the northern Cordillera. The birds of Canada are mostly migratory, and are those common to the northern and central states of the United States. The wildfowl are, particularly in the west, in great numbers; their breeding-grounds extending from Manitoba and the western prairies up to Hudson Bay, the barren lands and Arctic coasts. The several kinds of geese—including the Canada goose, the Arctic goose or wavey, the laughing goose, the brant and others—all breed in the northern regions, but are found in great numbers throughout the several provinces, passing north in the spring and south in the autumn. There are several varieties of grouse, the largest of which is the grouse of British Columbia and the pennated grouse and the prairie chicken of Manitoba and the plains, besides the so-called partridge and willow partridge, both of which are grouse. While the pennated grouse (called the prairie chicken in Canada) has always been plentiful, the prairie hen (or chicken) proper is a more recent arrival from Minnesota and the Dakotas, to which it had come from Illinois and the south as settlement and accompanying wheatfields extended north. In certain parts of Ontario the wild turkey is occasionally found and the ordinary quail, but in British Columbia is found the California quail, and a larger bird much resembling it called the mountain partridge. The golden eagle, bald-headed eagle, osprey and a large variety of hawks are common in Canada, as are the snowy owl, the horned owl and others inhabiting northern climates. The raven frequently remains even in the colder parts throughout the winter; these, with the Canada jay, waxwing, grosbeak and snow bunting, being the principal birds seen in Manitoba and northern districts in that season. The rook is not found, but the common crow and one or two other kinds are there during the summer. Song-birds are plentiful, especially in wooded regions, and include the American robin, oriole, thrushes, the cat-bird and various sparrows; while the English sparrow, introduced years ago, has multiplied excessively and become a nuisance in the towns. The smallest of the birds, the ruby throat humming-bird, is found everywhere, even up to timber line in the mountains. The sea-birds include a great variety of gulls, guillemots, cormorants, albatrosses (four species), fulmars and petrels, and in the Gulf of St Lawrence the gannet is very abundant. Nearly all the sea-birds of Great Britain are found in Canadian waters or are represented by closely allied species. (A. P. C.)
Area and Population.—The following table shows the division of the Dominion into provinces and districts, with the capital, population and estimated area of each.
| Area in sq. mi. | Population. | Official Capital. | ||
| 1881. | 1901. | |||
| Provinces— | ||||
| Ontario | 260,862 | 1,926,922 | 2,182,947 | Toronto |
| Quebec | 351,873 | 1,359,027 | 1,648,898 | Quebec |
| Nova Scotia | 21,428 | 440,572 | 459,574 | Halifax |
| New Brunswick | 27,985 | 321,233 | 331,120 | Fredericton |
| Manitoba | 73,732 | 62,260 | 255,211[1] | Winnipeg |
| British Columbia | 372,630 | 49,459 | 178,657 | Victoria |
| Prince Edward Island | 2,184 | 108,891 | 103,259 | Charlottetown |
| Saskatchewan | 250,650 | 25,515 | 91,460[1] | Regina |
| Alberta | 253,540 | 72,841[1] | Edmonton | |
| Districts— | ||||
| Keewatin | 516,571 | 30,931 | 8,800 | · · |
| Yukon | 196,976 | 27,219 | Dawson City | |
| Mackenzie | 562,182 | 5,216 | · · | |
| Ungava | 354,961 | 5,113 | · · | |
| Franklin | 500,000 | · · | ||
| The Dominion | 3,745,574[2] | 4,324,810 | 5,371,315 | Ottawa |
In 1867 the Dominion was formed by the union of the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec (Lower Canada) and Ontario (Upper Canada). In 1869 the North-west Territories were purchased from the Hudson’s Bay Company, from a corner of which Manitoba was carved in the next year. In 1871 British Columbia and in 1873 Prince Edward Island joined the Dominion.
The islands and other districts within the Arctic circle became a portion of the Dominion only in 1880, when all British possessions in North America, excepting Newfoundland, with its dependency, the Labrador coast, and the Bermuda islands, were annexed to Canada. West of the province of Ontario, then inaccurately defined, the provinces of Manitoba and British Columbia were the only organized divisions of the western territory, but in 1882 the provisional districts of Assiniboia, Athabasca, Alberta and Saskatchewan were formed, leaving the remainder of the north-west as unorganized territories, a certain portion of the north-east, called Keewatin, having previously been placed under the lieutenant-governor of Manitoba. In 1905 these four districts were formed into the two provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, and Keewatin was placed directly under the federal government. In 1898, owing to the influx of miners, the Yukon territory was constituted and granted a limited measure of self-government. The unorganized territories are sparsely inhabited by Indians, the people of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s posts and a few missionaries.
Population.—The growth of population is shown by the following figures:—1871, 3,485,761; 1881, 4,324,810; 1891, 4,833,239; 1901, 5,371,315. Since 1901 the increase has been more rapid, and in 1905 alone 144,621 emigrants entered Canada, of whom about two-fifths were from Great Britain and one-third from the United States.
The density of population is greatest in Prince Edward Island, where it is 51.6 to the sq. m.; in Nova Scotia it is 22.3; New Brunswick, 11.8; Ontario, 9.9; Manitoba, 4.9; Quebec, 4.8; Saskatchewan, 1.01; Alberta, 0.72; British Columbia, 0.4; the Dominion, 1.8. This is not an indication of the density in settled parts; as in Quebec, Ontario and the western provinces there are large unpopulated districts, the area of which enters into the calculation. The population is composed mainly of English- or French-speaking people, but there are German settlements of some extent in Ontario, and of late years there has been a large immigration into the western provinces and territories from other parts of Europe, including Russians, Galicians, Polish and Russian Jews, and Scandinavians. These foreign elements have been assimilated more slowly than in the United States, but the process is being hastened by the growth of a national consciousness. English, Irish and Scots and their descendants form the bulk of the population of Ontario, French-Canadians of Quebec, Scots of Nova Scotia, the Irish of a large proportion of New Brunswick. In the other provinces the latter race tends to confine itself to the cities. Manitoba is largely peopled from Ontario, together with a decreasing number of half-breeds—i.e. children of white fathers (chiefly French or Scottish) and Indian mothers—who originally formed the bulk of its inhabitants. Alberta and Saskatchewan, particularly the ranching districts, are chiefly peopled by English immigrants, though since 1900 there has also been a large influx from the United States. British Columbia contains a mixed population, of which in the mining districts a large proportion is American. Since 1871 a great change has taken place throughout the west, i.e. from Lake Superior to the Pacific. Then Manitoba was principally inhabited by English and French half-breeds (or Métis), descendants of Hudson’s Bay Company’s employes, or
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 The census is taken every ten years, save in these three provinces, where it is taken every five. Their population in 1906 was:— Manitoba, 360,000; Saskatchewan, 257,000; Alberta, 184,000.
- ↑ The areas assigned to Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and British Columbia are exclusive of the territorial seas, that to Quebec is exclusive of the Gulf of St Lawrence (though including the islands lying within it), and that to Ontario is exclusive of the Canadian portion of the Great Lakes. About 500,000 sq. m. belong to the Arctic region and 125,755 sq. m. are water.
