BLUE GOOSE 



139 



Hudson Bay, five or six hundred miles to the westward of that found by 

 Soper. Here, contrary to Soper's observations on Baffin Island, the Blue 

 Goose and Lesser Snow Goose were found to interbreed occasionally. 

 Gavin (1940) found two pairs of Blue Geese nesting on an island in a 

 tributary of the Perry River. 



The nests are built on top of slight undulations of the tundra. "This 

 choice affords meagre eleva- 

 tion above the more sodden 

 surroundings, with their 

 muddy depressions and stag- 

 nant pools. Here the ground 

 is comparatively dry and firm 

 and well grown to moss and 

 grass. Most of the nests are 

 constructed of finely plucked 

 and shredded moss, lined 

 with a mixture of fine, dead 

 grasses and light-coloured 

 down. Others are built en- 

 tirely of grass, or in combina- 

 tion with a species of chick- 

 weed . . . which thrives among 

 it." The nests are large and 

 bulky in relation to the in- 

 side diameter, and the eggs 

 when freshly laid are white 

 or very pale creamy white, 

 averaging 3.16 by 2.01 inches. 

 The shell is thick and finely 

 granulated, with a slight 

 sheen, or lustre. The number 

 of eggs varies from 3 to 5, and the period of incubation is 23 to 25 days. 

 The males stand by at the nest and, according to Soper, unquestionably 

 take turns at incubation. 



Manning (1942) states that the incubation period is 23 days, and 

 says, "I have no evidence that the male ever incubates. All the birds 

 that I collected after having seen them leave the nest were females, and 

 I have never collected a male with the least indication of an incubating 

 patch." 



"Many herring gulls nest in the colony, chiefly on large glacial 

 boulders. Whenever my passing disturbed a goose and caused it to leave 

 its nest, a gull would soon swoop down to examine it, and, on seeing the 

 eggs, alight close by. That, however, was usually as far as it got before 

 the parent goose, most frequently the female which always kept a close 

 watch about a hundred yards away, returned, quite oblivious of my 

 presence, and alighting some yards from the nest, with flapping w T ings 

 made a dash at the intruder. In its hurry it would often fall flat on its 



