THE EMPEROR GOOSE 



By E. W. NELSON 



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KOUCATIONAL LEAFLET No. 64 



Among all the Wild Geese which make their summer home in the far 

 north — both in the Old and the New World — the Emperor Goose is the least 

 known and most beautiful. Its snowy white head, dusky throat, satiny gray 

 body, on which each feather is marked by a black crescent and white margin, 

 and the brilliant orange feet, make a strikingly handsome combination of 

 colors. When the males first arrive on their breeding-grounds in spring, the 

 beauty of their plumage is remarka1)le, but much of its satiny luster goes with 

 the advancing season. 



Although the breeding-range of the Emperor Goose covers parts of two 

 continents, yet it is perhaps more restricted in its territory than any other 

 species of northern Goose. Its summer home lies along the coasts on both 

 sides of Bering Straits, but so far as we know, the vast majority of them breed 

 in Alaska, mainly on the islands of the lower part of the Yukon delta, and 

 thence southward on the low marshy tundras to Cape Vancouver and nearly 

 to the mouth of the Kuskoquim River. A few stragglers nest north of the mouth 

 of the Yukon. Considerable numbers also breed on St. Lawrence Island, 

 where I have seen many flocks in June. They also rear their young on the 

 shores of Chukchi Land, in extreme northeastern Asia. We saw them coast- 

 ing along the beach near East Cape on the Siberian side of Bering Strait the 

 first of July, and they must have been breeding in that district. When Norden- 

 skiold wintered at Tapkan, on the Arctic Coast of Siberia northwest of Bering 

 Straits, he noted the arrival of these birds near his winter-quarters as soon 

 as the snow left the tundra in spring. This is the most western record we have 

 of them in Siberia, but they no doubt range still farther. Their main winter- 

 ing place appears to be on the Pacific, or southern, side of the Peninsula of 

 Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. The Aleuts know them as "Beach Geese," 

 owing to their persistent occupation of the seashore. Stray individuals wander 

 far down the American coast in winter, even to northern California, where 

 several, mostly immature birds, have been captured. They also go as far as 

 the Hawaiian Island, and Mr. Henry W. Henshaw records the capture of 

 four on Hawaii, where they arrived, with other stray visitors, after a severe 

 October gale, in 1902. On the coast of eastern Asia, we have records of them 

 as far south as Bering Island, the mouth of the Anadyr Ri\-er, and the coast 

 of Kamtschatka. On this coast, however, we do not know of their presence 

 in any large numbers. 



While I was preparing to go to Alaska, more years ago than I like to con- 

 template, the Emperor Goose, Steller's and Fischer's Eiders, and the Aleu- 



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