CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. I3I 



175. Barnacle Goose. 



Branta Icucopsis (Bechst.) Bannister. 1870. 



A regular autumnal visitor at Julianshaab, and may perhaps 

 breed in Greenland; recorded also from the east coast. {Arct. 

 Man.) Said by Richardson to be rare and accidental in Hudson 

 bay. A specimen in the U. S. National Museum collection was 

 obtained near Rupert House, James bay by Bernard R. Ross. 

 (Preble.) 



LXVIII. PHILACTE Bannister. 1870. 



176. Emperor Goose. 



Philacte canagica (Sevast.) Bannister. 1870. 



One specimen killed at Chemainus, Vancouver island, December, 

 1894. {Fannin.) Among the various species of birds, more or 

 less peculiar to Alaska, this goose is perhaps the most noteworthy. 

 The limited area covered by its migrations, its narrow range, reach- 

 ing only across the area bounded by the Aleutian islands to the south, 

 and the vicinity of Bering strait on the north, and the little known 

 of its life-history, caused me to give it much attention at St. Michael. 

 (Nelson.) The habitat of this goose is strictly littoral-maritime, 

 frequenting only the reefs, rocks and shoals of the salt water and 

 brackish lagoons of the mainland coast. It is never found in fresh- 

 water localities excepting those contiguous to the sea, such as the 

 lower Yukon delta, mouth of the Kuskoquim river, and the bars 

 lying off the mouth of the Nuskagak river. (Turner.) Occurs 

 regularly on the Pribilof islands in the summer, but does not breed. 

 (Townsend.) 



Breeding Notes. — On May 22nd, my Eskimo hunter brought 

 in the first one, a magnificent male in fine plumage. From that 

 time on they became more common daily until the first of June, 

 when they arrived in full force. Soon after their arrival they begau 

 to pair, and were seen flying in couples, keeping close to the ground, 

 rarely flying twenty or thirty yards high, and often barely keeping 

 clear of the surface. Early in June they began depositing their eggs 

 on the flat, marshy islands bordering the. sea. They nested most 

 abundantly on the salt-marshes adjacent to their feeding-grounds 

 9>^ 



