CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. FL, 
the middle of June, fresh eggs may be found, but very soon after 
the latter date downy young begin to appear. These geese 
choose for a nesting place the grassy border of a small lakelet, 
a knoll grown over with moss and grass, or even a flat sparingly 
covered with grass. Along the Yukon, Dall found them breeding 
gregariously, depositing their eggs in a hollow scooped out of 
the sand. At the Yukon mouth and St. Michael they were found 
breeding in scattered pairs over the flat country. Every one of 
the nests examined by me, in these places, had a slight lining of 
grass or moss, gathered by the parent, and upon this the first egg 
was laid ; as the complement is approached, the female always 
plucks down and feathers from her breast until, when incubation 
commences, the eggs rest in a soft warm bed. The eggs vary 
considerably in size and shape. Some are decidedly elongated, 
others are decidedly oval. In colour they are dull-white, but 
ordinarily present a dirty-brown appearance from being stained 
in the nest. (/Ve/son. 
This species arrives at Point Barrow, Alaska, about the middle 
ot May, and for a couple of weeks is generally found in small 
parties along the lagoons and the small pools which have opened 
along the crown of the beach. As the snow cleared off—early 
in June—they scattered in pairs over the tundra, occasionally 
feeding together in small parties of half a dozen or more. The 
eggs are always laid in the black muddy tundra, often on top of 
a small knoll. The nest is lined with tundra moss and down. 
The number of eggs appears to be subject to considerable 
variation, as we found sets of four, six and seven, all well 
advanced in incubation. The last egg is laid generally in the 
middle of the nest, and may be recognized by its white shell 
-unless incubation is far advanced, the eggs being soiled by the 
birds coming on and off the nest. (Muzrdoch.) 
A considerable number of the nests of this ‘Gray Wavey ” were 
discovered in the vicinity of fresh-water lakes in timber tracts as 
well as along the Lower Anderson River to the sea. Some were 
taken on the Arctic coast, and several, also, on islands and islets 
in Franklin Bay. In all, about one hundred nests were secured. 
The nest, which was always a mere shallow cavity in the ground, 
in every observed and reported instance had more or less of a 
lining of hay, feathers and down, while the maximum number 
of eggs in no case exceeded seven. (Macfarlane.) 
