GREATER SNOW GOOSE 133 



on this preserve, are protected by both the Royal Canadian Mounted 

 Police and the warden of the Club, with the result that they enjoy prac- 

 tically complete protection during their spring sojourn, and the hunting 

 of them that takes place in the autumn is limited and carefully con- 

 trolled. A few birds, of course, are taken outside the preserve during the 

 hunting season, but the total number of Greater Snow Geese killed an- 

 nually on the entire St. Lawrence River area frequented by them is less 

 than four hundred." 



Nowhere on the mainland of North America are the Greater Snow 

 Geese known to nest. Langdon Gibson, ornithologist of the Peary expedi- 

 tion of 1891 and 1892, found these birds breeding in northern Greenland 

 in the vicinity of McCormick Bay, latitude 77 degrees 40 minutes north. 

 He says: "It is my good fortune to record, for the first time, the breed- 

 ing of this species in north Greenland. A family was found in Five 

 Glacier Valley on July 11, 1892. The male disputed my advance with 

 head lowered and much hissing, quite after the fashion of the barnyard 

 goose, and before I was aware of the existence of goslings I shot the fe- 

 male. Then I took two of the goslings, that were about 2 weeks old, 

 leaving the gander to rear the remaining six. The birds were on the nest 

 at the time of capture. The nest itself was well-lined with grasses and 

 placed near a pile of broken stone beside a marshy spot some acres in ex- 

 tent and about 100 yards from a shallow pond. On August 21, when 

 again passing through the valley, I was happy to see the male proudly 

 marching at the head of his family of six, at least 10 miles from the nest. 

 As he had a broken wing and his family then had every indication of 

 being able to shift for themselves, I reluctantly, and in the interest of 

 science, dispatched him." 



Of the arrival of these geese on their breeding grounds in northern 

 Greenland, Ekblaw in notes quoted by Bent (1925) says: "June is al- 

 most gone when the first Snow Geese arrive in northwest Greenland. 

 The land is almost bare of snow, the inland lakelets are open, and rush- 

 ing streams are flush to the brim with clear, cold water. Spring is at its 

 height when the Snow Geese come .... The birds fly low and swift, their 

 gleaming white plumage dazzlingly conspicuous against the dark-brown 

 hills. When they fly near, the black tips of their wings are easily recog- 

 nizable. They stalk regally about the lakelets and along the streams like 

 the snow king's soldiers, stately and dignified. They are mated when 

 they arrive in the North, and though they stay in flocks most of the time, 

 they pair as soon as they alight, either on land or in water. Wherever 

 they appear they grace the landscape." 



Of the nests, eggs, and young of this species, the same writer, in his 

 notes, states: "The geese nested in the grassy swales and flats along the 

 lake-dotted flood plain of the streams which empty into North Star Bay 

 [Greenland]. The nests are placed in depressions among the tussocks 

 so that the brooding birds are not readily detected; built up somewhat 

 with mud and grass and dead vegetation and lined with white feathers 

 and down, they are much better constructed than are the nests of the 

 Eider and the Old-squaw. The first eggs are laid soon after July 1. A 



