LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WILD FOWL 165 



read} northern Alaska. Illustrating these two lines of flight we 

 have the following statements by E. A. Preble and Dr. E. W. Nel- 

 son; Mr. Preble (1908) says: 



The valleys of the Athabaska and the Mackenzie lie in the path of migration 

 of great numbers of snow geese of both the eastern and western forms. The 

 rivers themselves, however, are seldom followed by the birds, except for short 

 distances, since their general courses trend somewhat toward the west, while 

 the lines of flight of the geese are usually nearly due north and south. 

 Flocks of snow geese, leaving in spring the marshes at the delta of the Peace 

 and Athabaska, a favorite stopping place, strike nearly due northward over 

 the rocky hills, probably not again alighting until several hundred miles 

 nearer their breeding grounds. Thus they press onward, close on the heels of 

 retreating winter, feeding, when suitable open water is denied them, on the 

 various berries which have remained on the stems through the winter. 



Pursuing the course of the river northward, the next favorite goose ground 

 is the delta of the Slave, where great numbers stop both spring and fall for 

 rest and food. The low country about the outlet of Great Slave Lake is also 

 a favorite resort. Leaving this point the geese in spring take a general 

 northerly course, which suggests that their breeding grounds are north of the 

 east end of Great Bear Lake. 



Doctor Nelson's (1887) remarks would seem to indicate that only 

 a small portion of the birds come as far north as St. Michael and 

 Point Barrow before they turn eastward. He writes : 



The handsome lesser snow goose is uncommon on the coast of Norton 

 Sound and about the Yukon mouth. It arrives in spring from the 5th to the 

 15th of May, according to the season, and after remaining a very short time 

 passes on to its more northern summer haunts. In the vicinity of Nulato, 

 on the Yukon, Dall found them arriving about May 9, on their way up the 

 Yukon ; " they only stop to feed and rest on the marshes during the dusky 

 twilight of the night, and are off with the early light of an Arctic spring." 



According to Murdoch they are occasionally seen at Point Barrow in spring. 

 This is all seen of these geese in spring throughout Alaska, except perhaps on 

 the extreme northern border, for south of this none breed, and none are found 

 after about May 25. They are far less numerous in spring than in fall along the 

 coast of Bering Sea, and their spring migration is over so quickly that they are 

 rarely killed at that season. Doctor Adams, while at St. Michael in 1851, 

 noted the arrival of these birds from the south in spring and their departure 

 to the north in fall, agreeing with my own observations, as noted elsewhere. 



Nesting. — Although there are quite a number of sets of eggs of the 

 snow goose in collections, the information we have regarding its 

 nesting habits is scanty enough. MacFarlane (1891) apparently 

 never found the nest of this bird himself, for he says : 



The Esquimaux assured us that large numbers of " white waves " annually 

 breed on the shores and islands of Esquimaux Lake and Liverpool Bay, but 

 strange to say, we never observed any in the Barren Grounds proper or on the 

 shores of Franklin Bay. The Esquimaux brought in to Fort Anderson about 

 100 eggs, which they claimed to have discovered among the marshy flats and 

 sandy islets on the coast of the former, as well as from similar localities on 

 and in the vicinity of the lake of that (Esquimaux) name. 



