LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMEEICAN WILD FOWL 241 



At Fort Chimo they arrive from tlie 20th of May to the 20th of June. They 

 fly past the station of Fort Chimo over the water in the Koksoak. At times 

 they are as high as 100 yards, and ofteaer only a few feet above the water or 

 running ice. They come at a time wlien it is almost impossible to get at them 

 on account of ice, and if this is not present they fly too high. They follow the 

 sinuosities of the river and only cross such points that they can see over. 

 Thousands of them are seen every spring and never one of them in the fall. 

 They are reported by the Eskimo to fly southward over Hudson Bay. The 

 route taken in the spring is to the west of Anticosti Island, thence north to the 

 ■" Height of land " where the Koksoak River descends, along which they fly 

 northward. They appear fatigued when they reach Hudson Strait, but with 

 rapid beat of wing they pursue their course to the unknown regions beyond. 



From here they apparently pass to the westward of Baffin Land 

 and spread out over their breeding grounds from Melville Island to 

 northern Greenland. Dr. Donald B. MacMillan tells me that they 

 appear in large numbers in spring on the southwest coast of Baffin 

 Land and apparently cross the center of that land, over a chain of 

 lakes, to Baffin Bay and fly straight north to Ellesmere Land and 

 northern Greenland, arriving at Etah about June 1. These early 

 arrivals must be the vanguard of the earliest flight. He says that 

 Sverdrup has seen them in Eureka Sound and Peary has seen them 

 at the north end of Axel Heiberg Land, Cape Thomas Hubbard, 

 and on the north coast of Grant Land, the northernmost land known. 



Nesting. — The best account I have of the nesting habits of this 

 species comes in some notes sent to me by the Rev. F. C. R. Jour- 

 dain ; he writes : 



Although closely allied to the barnacle goose, the brant differs widely from 

 it in its breeding habits. While the barnacle goose has attained security from 

 marauders by placing its nest in inaccessible spots on mountain sides, the 

 brant prefers as a rule to breed on the little holms and outlying islets which 

 fringe the coast. Here for centuries they have bred undisturbed save for an 

 occasional visit from a sealing sloop, but of late years, since most of these 

 vessels have been fitted with auxiliary oil engines, the sloops have taken to 

 working systematically the eider holms for eggs and down, and the geese in 

 consequence have been driven from many of their old haunts by indiscriminate 

 shooting during the breeding season. No doubt a good many pairs still breed 

 on some of the less accessible islands, but apparently many birds now nest 

 also on the mainland, especially on the grassy islands formed by the many 

 channels into which the rivers tend to divide when the valleys open out. The 

 diminution in the number of Arctic foxes by trapping has probably rendered 

 this type of site less dangerous than formerly, but we had evidence of nests 

 of this kind being destroyed by foxes. 



On Moffen Island, which is practically a huge shingle bed, we found several 

 pairs breeding among the shingle and in one case on the " slob-land " not far 

 off. As in the case of the other geese, incubation is performed by the goose 

 alone, but the gander mounts guard by her side and is generally to be found 

 on duty. The normal clutch is apparently 3 to 5, but Koenig records one in- 

 stance of 6 and Kolthoff 7. Several cases of 2 and even 1 incubated egg 

 occurred, but are probably due to the fact that a previous clutch had been 



