FAUNA OF THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS AND ALASKA PENINSULA 67 



One pair had 2 young, and another had 5 young. In the Semichis, 

 we found feathers and a few droppings on Alaid Island. On 

 June 15, 1936, the captain and the mate of our ship saw a 

 "small goose" of the canadensis type near the shore of Chagulak 

 Island, and we found signs of geese on Buldir. However, they 

 had disappeared on most of the islands, and our total observa- 

 tions indicated that only a few pairs remained in the Aleutians. 

 In fact, these geese are so scarce that the migration is no longer 

 noticeable, and some of the younger Aleuts didn't seem to know 

 about it. When the remaining geese that go to the Aleutians 

 are killed, it will be a long time for a migration to become rees- 

 tablished, and consequently an extensive habitat for minima and 

 leucopareia will lie vacant. 



Causes for decline — The natives, as well as several writers, 

 have assumed that the disappearance of these geese from many 

 islands was due to the introduction of blue foxes. Undoubtedly, 

 this is true, yet on Buiclir where there are no foxes, the geese 

 are not plentiful. Undoubtedly, another important cause for 

 their decline is increased hunting along the migration route and 

 on the wintering grounds in the south. 



Administrative action has already been taken to free certain 

 favorable islands, including Agattu, from foxes. Further, to 

 preserve these geese, it remains for sportsmen to protect the 

 birds on the wintering grounds. With such a combination of 

 protection, it is still possible to prevent these geese from losing 

 their present tenuous hold in the Aleutians, and perhaps it would 

 be possible for them to build up to a point where they will be 

 safe from extinction. 



Branta nigricans: Black Brant 



Attu : Agru-ge la-ghe 



Nelson Island Eskimo: Nuk-hla-ra-nak 



Hooper Bay Eskimo: Nuk-ht-nuk 



Hooper Bay, a more inland dialect: Nuk-lu-gu-nuk 



Nelson (Eskimo dialect) : Luk-hlug-u-huk 



Russian, Yana district: Njemok (Pleske) 



Chukchi: Nedljuitti (Palmen) 



The black brant is only a migrant in the Aleutian district, but 

 it occurs in considerable numbers. In 1936, we were told at 

 Port Moller that the brant appear there in April, and we re- 

 ceived the same information for the Chignik area. We had seen 

 them on northward migration near Seymour Narrows, British 

 Columbia, on April 24, and on Queen Charlotte Sound on April 



