LIFE lilSTOlUES OF NORTH AMERICAN WILD FOWL 265 



ovate. The shell is smooth or very fniely granulated and not at all 

 glossy. The color is creamy white or dull white at first, becoming 

 nest stained or variegated or finely speckled with buff. The measure- 

 ments of 96 eggs, in various collections, average 78.G by 52.1 milli- 

 meters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 86 by 49, 80.2 

 by 56.2, 70.3 by 50.3, and 75.8 by 48.3 millimeters. 



Young. — The period of incubation is 24 days, according to F. E. 

 Blaauw (1916), who has succeeded in raising this species in cap- 

 tivity. Doctor Nelson (1913) says of the young: 



The young are hatched the last of June or early July, and are led about 

 the tundras by both parents until, the last of July and the first of August, 

 the old birds molt their quill feathers and with the still unfledged young be- 

 come extremely helpless. At this time, myriads of other geese are in the 

 same condition, and the Esquimos made a practice of setting up long lines of 

 strong fishnets on the tundras to form pound traps, or inclosures with wide 

 wings leading to them, into which thousands were driven and killed for food. 

 The slaughter in this way was very great, for the young were killed at the 

 same time and thrown away in order to get them out of the way of the next 

 drive. The Esquimos of this region also gather large numbers of eggs of the 

 breeding waterfowl for food and, with the demand for them at the mining 

 camps of the north, a serious menace to the existence of these and other 

 waterfowl might ensue. 



Plumages. — Mr. Blaauw (191G) says: "The chick in down is of 

 a beautiful pearl-gray, darkest on the head and upper side and 

 lighter below. The legs and bill are black." A larger downy young, 

 about the size of a teal, in the United States National Museum, has 

 probably faded some ; the upper parts vary in color from " bister " 

 to " buffy brown " and the under parts from " smoke gray " to 

 " olive biiff." 



Mr. Blaauw (1916) says: 



The chicks grew very fast, and in a few weeks were completely feathered. 

 In the first feather dress the bird resembles the adults, but the gray is not 

 so bluish. The black markings on the feathers are only indicated, and the 

 coverts on the upper side are not so square, but more pointed. The black 

 throat is wanting, and so is the white head and neck, these parts being gray 

 like the rest of the body. The tail is white. 



The bill is dusky bluish, flesh color at the base and black at the tip. The 

 legs are yellowish black. As soon as the birds are full grown they begin 

 to molt, shedding all the feathers except the large flight feathers. The tail 

 feathers are also molted. 



At the end of October the young birds are (luite grown, and similar to the 

 old birds. By this time the upper mandible has got the beautiful blue and 

 flesh colors of the old birds, whilst t)ie lower mandible has become black. 

 The legs are now orange. When the bird is molting, the first white f(»atliers 

 of the head to appear are near the liase of the bill. 



The above gray-headed plumage must be the juvenal plumage, 

 which I have never seen, and which is probably not worn for more 



