190 BULLETIN 130, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



gariously, depositing their eggs in a hollow scooped out in the sand. At the 

 Yukon mouth and St. Michael they were found breeding in scattered pairs 

 over the flat country. Every one of the nests examined by me in these places 

 had a slight lining of grass or moss, gathered by the parent, and upon this 

 the first egg was laid ; as the complement of eggs is approached the female 

 always plucks down and feathers from her breast until the eggs rest in a soft 

 warm bed, when incubation commences. 



John Murdoch (1885) says that at Point Barrow — 



the eggs are always laid in the black, muddy tundra, often on top of a slight 

 knoll. The nest is lined with tundra moss and down. The number of eggs in 

 a brood appears subject to considerable variation, as we found sets of 4, 6, and 

 7, all well advanced in incubation. The last-laid egg is generally in the middle 

 of the nest and may be recognized by its white shell unless incubation is far 

 advanced, the other eggs being stained and soiled by the birds coming on and 

 off the nest. 



Roderick MacFarlane (1891) writes: 



A considerable number of nests of this " gray wavy " was discovered in the 

 vicinity of fresh-water lakes in timber tracts, as well as along the Lower 

 Anderson River to the sea. Some were taken on the Arctic coast, and several 

 also on islands and islets in Franklin Bay. In all, about 100 nests were 

 secured. The nest, which was always a mere shallow cavity in the ground, 

 in every observed and reported instance had more or less of a lining of hay, 

 feathers, and down, while the maximum number of eggs in no case exceeded 7. 

 On the 5th of July, 1864, on our return trip from Franklin Bay we observed 

 30 molting ganders of this species on a small lake in the Barrens. Our party 

 divided, and by loud shooting and throwing stones at them they were driven 

 to land, where 27 of them were run down and captured. Their flesh proved 

 excellent eating ; it is seldom, indeed, that I have come across a gray wavy 

 that was not in good condition in the far North. 



A nest of the white-fronted goose in the writer's collection was 

 taken near Point Barrow, Alaska, on June 27, 1916. It consists of a 

 mass of pale gray and white down, thoroughly mixed with breast 

 feathers of the goose, bits of dry, coarse grasses, lichens, mosses, dead 

 leaves of the dwarf willow, and other rubbish found on the tundra; 

 it is quite different in appearance from the nests of other geese. It 

 contained four eggs advanced in incubation. 



Eggs. — The white-fronted goose lays from 4 to 7 eggs, usually 

 5 or 6. These vary in shape from elliptical oval or elliptical ovate 

 to elongate ovate. The color varies from " light buff " to creamy 

 Avhite or pale pinkish white. I have never seen any tinge of green- 

 ish in the eggs of this goose. The eggs often become very much 

 stained with buffy or reddish brown stains, such as " cinnamon buff " 

 or " ochraceous buff," which rub off or scratch off in irregular 

 patches, exposing the original color; there are often several degrees 

 of color in the same set of eggs, the freshest egg being quite clean and 

 the oldest eggs decidedly dark colored. The measurements of 109 

 eggs, in various collections, average 79 by 52.5 millimeters; the eggs 



