THE AMERICANS MUSEUM JOURNAL 



thousand or more miles to the north- 

 ward, suddenly fluttered into view, re- 

 vealing a handsome set of eggs tucked 

 away under a tuft of short grass. Birds 

 were A-ery scarce; occasionally a small 

 flycatcher -would be seen or heard, or a 

 robin would make known his Avhere- 

 abouts, and in the stunted trees that 

 found shelter in little pockets or on the 



got under way and spent the forenoon 

 sailing slowly along until an inviting 

 cove at Timbales Island, with a snowy 

 white kelp goose standing on the outer- 

 most point of rocks, induced us again 

 to drop anchor and go ashore. This 

 part of the vsound was studded with lit- 

 tle islands where the presence of 

 steamer ducks and kelp geese gave 



The eggs ot the kelp goose, usually five or six in number, are, as a rule, stowed away in a dump 

 of grass dose to the beach. (Xote the nest at the feet of the feminine figure.) This goose lives largely 

 on bits of kelp and other salt water vegetation and is eaten only by the Indians. It is much tamer 

 than the upland goose, a few of which are also found on the larger southern islands. A close view of 

 the nest is shown on the opposite page 



lee side of towering cliffs, the tiny 

 creepers could be heard. While the 

 barren rocks brought to mind similar 

 spots in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, 

 the cheery song of the snowflake or 

 Leucosticte found no counterpart here. 

 Leaving this inhospitable anchorage 

 the morning of December 2, we sailed 

 out into Whaleboat Sound with a fair 

 wind, and through rain and snow 

 squalls reached the eastern end of 

 Grand Island where we anchored again. 

 The next morning at half past five we 



l)romise of nests, although two or three 

 pairs of each were seen with broods of 

 downy young. Shortly before anchor- 

 ing, we saw the wreck of an Argentine 

 steamer, the captain of which had se- 

 lected the wrong channel between two 

 of the numerous i.«lands and had come 

 to grief on an uncharted reef. Tim- 

 bales Island interested us greatly, and 

 we obtained fine sets of eggs and photo- 

 graphs of both kelp geese and steamer 

 ducks. The sailors discovered the 

 goo.se"s nest a couple of miles from the 



