232 BULLETIN 130, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



at once and come circling about, uttering loud call notes. If the fallen bird 

 is only wounded, its mate will almost invariably join it, and frequently allow 

 itself to be approached and shot without attempting to escape. In some 

 instances I have known a bird thus bereaved of its partner to remain in the 

 vicinity for two to three days, calling and circling about. Although many are 

 mated, others are not, and the less fortunate males fight hard and long for 

 possession of females. I frequently amused myself while at the Yukon mouth 

 by watching flocks of geese on the muddy banks of the river, which was a 

 favorite resort. The females kept to one side and dozed or dabbed their bills 

 in the mud ; the males were scattered about and kept moving uneasily from 

 side to side, making a great outcry. This would last but a few minutes, when 

 two of the warriors would cross each other's path, and then began the battle. 

 They would seize one another by the bill, and then turn and twist each other 

 about, their wings hanging loosely by their sides meanwhile. Suddenly they 

 would close up and each would belabor his rival with the bend of the wing, 

 until the sound could be heard two or three hundred yards. The wing strokes 

 were always warded off by the other bird's wing, so but little damage was 

 done ; but it usually ended in the weaker bird breaking loose and running away. 

 Just before the males seize each other they usually utter a series of peculiar 

 low growling or grunting notes. 



Nesting. — Of their breeding habits in that vicinity he writes : 



The last week of May finds many of these birds already depositing tlieir 

 eggs. Upon the grassy borders of ponds, in the midst of a bunch of grass, or 

 on a small knoll these birds find a spot where they make a slight depression 

 and perhaps line it with a scanty layer of grasses, after which the eggs are 

 laid, numbering from 5 to 8. These eggs, like the birds, average smaller than 

 those of the other geese. As the eggs are deposited the female gradually lines 

 the nest with feathers plucked from her breast until they rest in a bed of 

 down. When first laid the eggs are white, but by the time incubation begins 

 all are soiled and dingy. The female usually crouches low on her nest until 

 an intruder comes within* a hundred yards or so, when she skulks off through 

 the grass or flies silently away, close to the ground, and only raises a note of 

 alarm when well away from the nest. When the eggs are about hatching, or 

 the young are out, both parents frequently become perfectly reckless in the 

 face of danger. 



Both the cackling goose and the Hutchins goose are said to breed 

 on the Aleutian Islands, but it seems hardly likeh^ that these two 

 subspecies should occupy the same breeding range. It seems more 

 likely that some of the records are based on erroneous identifica- 

 tions or on misunderstandings as to the characters, both puzzling 

 and variable, which separate these two forms. Lucien M. Turner 

 (1886) reported both forms as breeding abundantly on the western 

 islands of this chain, mainly on Agattu and Semichi, but I can not 

 find any specimens of hutchinsi to substantiate his claim. 



Mr. Austin H. Clark (1910) reported that the Hutchins goose — 



is the most abundant bird on Agattu, where it breeds by thousands. When we 

 approached the shore we saw a number of geese flying about the cliffs and 

 bluffs and soaring in circles high in air. On landing I walked up the beach 

 to the left and soon came to a small stream which enters the sea through a gap 



