EMPEBOK GOOSE 245 



On June 5 a female was found setting upon her eggs on a little knoll, 

 with a small fragment of bleached drift-wood w^ithin a few yards of her, and 

 as she lay with extended neck, although the ground was almost bare, my 

 Eskimo and I passed within a few feet of her on either side, without seeing 

 her. We were about 20 steps beyond when she left the nest with a startled 

 cry, thus drawing our notice. The three eggs were in full view when we 

 turned. They rested in a depression with no sign of a lining. The same 

 ruse causeil us to pass other nests, but the birds betrayed them each time 

 by flying off with a loud outcry almost as soon as our backs w'ere presented. 



The majority of the nests found b.y Nelson contained from three 

 to five eggs, but the full eompknnent usually ranges from five to eight. 

 A series of eggs in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology taken in the 

 Yukon Delta are closely similar to those of the White-fronted Goose, 

 and vary widely in size and shape. Some are much elongated, while 

 others are obtusely pyriform. In color they are white, but all are 

 more or less nest-stained with brownish. Twenty eggs measured by 

 the writers showed length in inches from 2.72 to 3.14 and short 

 diameters from 1.91 to 2.09, the averages being 2.93 by 2.01. Nelson 

 (1887, pp. 90-91) further states that "as the complement of eggs 

 approached completion, the parent made a soft bed of fine grass, 

 leaves, and feathers plucked from her own breast. As a rule, when 

 driven from her eggs, the female flew straight away and alighted at 

 some distance, sometimes half a mile from the nest, showing very little 

 concern. The male was rarely seen in the vicinity of the nest. The 

 young are hatched the last of June or first of July, and the adult 

 birds undergo the summer moult from the last of July to the middle 

 of August." 



The Emperor Goose flies in pairs or in small flocks of four or 

 five. A juvenile killed at Gridley, Butte County, was alone, being the 

 second in a flock of White-fronted Geese. One taken near Modesto, 

 Stanislaus County, came to the blind alone. Another taken near 

 Davis, Yolo County, had been noted alone in the same pond for three 

 weeks previous to capture. This species is said to be shyer than any 

 other goose except the Black Sea Brant. 



In Alaska the Emperor Goose remains on its breeding grounds 

 longer in the fall than any other species, lingering until the whole 

 seacoast is fringed with ice before going to the slightly less rigorous 

 Aleutian shores but a few hundred miles to the southward. In the 

 north it feeds chiefl}' on shellfish, though at times it resorts to heath- 

 berries which are available on the tundras closely adjacent to the 

 seashore. 



As a game bird this goose is not highly prized, for its flesh has 

 a disagreeably strong taste. It is said, however, that much of this 

 taste is due to the skin and that the flesh proves palatable if the skin 

 is carefully removed first and the bird well cooked. 



