266 BULLETIN 130, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



than a few weeks. Evidently the change into the first winter plumage 

 must be very rapid. All the young birds which I have seen, col- 

 lected between September 9 and November 17 of their first year, are 

 in the first winter plumage. In this the head and neck are largely 

 white above and black below, much as in the adult, but the black 

 area is browner and the white area is much obscured by dusky 

 mottling, especially on the forehead, lores, and neck; the juvenal 

 wing is similar in color pattern to the adult, but it has narrower, 

 buffy white edgings instead of broad white edgings and dull, brown- 

 ish-dusky, subterminal markings instead of pure clear black; the 

 feathers of the back are similarly marked with dull patterns and nar- 

 row buffy edgings, which soon wear away; the under parts are dull 

 and mottled; and the tail is largely white, as in the adult. This 

 plumage is worn for a very variable length of time by different 

 individuals. I have seen birds taken in November in which the 

 adult plumage was well advanced on the back and scapulars; and 

 I have seen others which were just begininng the molt in June. 

 Perhaps both of these were exceptional; and probabl}^ a more or 

 less continual molt of the bodj^ plumage takes place all through 

 the winter and spring. I have a fine young male in my collection, 

 taken June 30, which is just completing this molt and is practically 

 adult. The wings are molted during the coming summer, July and 

 August, after which young birds, during their second fall, become 

 indistinguishable from adults. 



Food. — Lucien M. Turner (1886) says that "the emperor goose 

 visits the vicinity of Stewart and St. JNIichael Islands in great num- 

 bers to feed on the shellfish exposed by the low water." Grinnell, 

 Bryant, and Storer (1918) say that "at times it resorts to heath 

 berries, which are available on the tundras closely adjacent to the 

 seashore." Other writers speak of it as feeding on mussels and 

 other shellfish and, as it is loiown to feed on the beaches and mud 

 flats, rather than on the grassy marshes or uplands, its food is prob- 

 ably mainly animal. Its flesh is said to be rank and strongly flavored, 

 which is generally not the case with vegetable feeders. 



Behavior. — Doctor Nelson (1913) says, of the flight and notes of 

 this species : 



When on the wing, they were easily distinguished from the other geese, 

 even at considerable distances, by their proportionately shorter necks and 

 heavier bodies, as well as by their short, rapid wing strokes, resembling those 

 of the black brant. Like the latter, they usually flew near the ground, rarely 

 more than 30 yards high, and commonly so close to the ground that their 

 wing tips almost touched the surface on the down stroke. While flying 

 from place to place, they give at short intervals a harsh, strident call of two 

 syllables, like Jcla-ha, kla-ha, Ida-ha, entirely different from the note of any 

 other goose I have ever heard. A group of them on a sand bar or mud flat 

 often utter lower, more cackling notes in a conversational tone, which may 



