LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WILD FOWL 191 



showing the four extremes measure 89.6 by 48, 82 by 58, 70 by 52, 

 and 77.2 by 46.7 millimeters. 



Yming. — The period of incubation does not seem to be positively 

 known, but probably it is about 28 days. The male does not desert 

 the female during the process, and both sexes help in caring for and 

 protecting the young. Mr. Hersey, while collecting for me on the 

 Yukon delta, encountered a family of these birds, about which he 

 wrote in his notes for June 21, 1914, as follows : 



Ou the edge of a little pond on the tuudra about 5 miles back from the 

 mouth of the river I found a pair of these geese and a brood of five young. The 

 birds had been resting under a clump of dwarf willows, and on my approach 

 the old birds came out into the open and attempted to lead the young away 

 over the open tundra. The young, although not more than a day or two old, 

 could run as fast as a man could travel over the rough ground. I had to 

 remove my coat before I could overtake them. They did not scatter, but ran 

 straight ahead, keeping close together, one of the parents running by their 

 side and guiding them and the other flying along above them and not more than 

 3 feet above the ground. The young kept up a faint calling, and the old birds 

 occasionally gave a low note of encouragement. 



Doctor Nelson (1887) says: 



The young are pretty little objects and are guarded with the greatest care 

 by the parents, the male and female joining in conducting their young from 

 place to place and in defending them from dangei-. The last of June, in 1877, 

 1 made an excursion to Stewart Island, near St. Michael, and while crossing 

 a flat came across a pair of these geese lying prone upon the ground in a grassy 

 spot, with necks stretched out in front and their young crouching prettily all 

 about them. Very frequently during my visits to the haunts of these birds the 

 parents were seen leading their young away through the grass, all crouching 

 and trying to make themselves as inconspicuous as possible. At Kotzebue 

 Sound, during the CorwirCs visit in July, 1881, old and young were very common 

 on the creeks and flats at the head of Eschscholtz Bay. 



John Koren collected for me in northeastern Siberia a strange 

 family party consisting of a female spectacled eider and two downy 

 young white-fronted geese. 



Plumages. — The downy young white-fronted goose is a beautiful 

 creature, thickly covered with long, soft down and brightly colored. 

 It somewhat resembles the young Canada goose, but the upper parts 

 are a trifle duller in color, and the bill is brown with a light-colored 

 nail, instead of all black as in the Canada. The colors of the upper 

 parts, including the central crown, back, wings, rump, and flanks, 

 vary from " buffy olive " to " ecru olive," darkest on the crown and 

 rump and palest on the upper back, with a yellowish sheen; there 

 is a faint loral and postocular stripe of olive; on the remainder of 

 the head and neck the colors shade from " olive ocher " on the 

 forehead, cheeks, and neck to " colonial buff " on the throat ; the 

 colors on the under parts shade from " mustard yellow " on the 



100440—25 14 



