254 The Emperor Goose 



show it to be a strictly salt-water, coastal species in both summer and 

 winter. Its food is sought between tide-lines, either on oozy flats, as at 

 the Yukon mouth, or along the rocky beaches of the wild Aleutian shores. 

 One spring, during my residence at St. Michael, it became possible to 

 fulfil my long-cherished desire to visit the breeding-grounds of these 

 geese and of many other water-fowl in the Yukon delta, and I left St. 

 Michael early in May with an Eskimo and a dog-sledge. The tundra 

 was still clothed in winter white, except here and there a bare spot on 

 the sunny side of a knoll, and the sea was covered with unbroken ice to 

 the far horizon. The hoarse, crowing notes of the Willow Ptamigan 



were beginning to be heard on the tundra, and occa- 

 pnng on t e s i ona i scouts from the coming army of White-fronted 



and Cackling Geese passed high overhead, spying out 

 the land; yet the day I started the temperature was well below zero. 

 At the border of the Yukon delta, Eskimos familiar with the country 

 were employed to lead us to the desired nesting-ground of the Emperor 

 Goose. Nearly half a day's journey among the maze of ice-covered 

 channels of the delta brought us to a low, flat island, where our guide as- 

 sured me many "Nachau-thluk" would soon arrive, to rear their young. It 

 was a bare, desolate spot, "with only a few scattered alders on the upper 

 side of the islands, and an unbroken view out over the frozen sea to the 

 west. A tent was put up on a slight rise and, after a stock of drift-wood 

 had been gathered, the guides took the sledge and left me with my 

 Eskimo companion to await the arrival of the birds. Later, when the 

 ice went out, they returned for me with kyaks. 



A few White-fronted and Cackling Geese gave noisy evidence of 

 their presence, but it was not until May 22 that the Eskimo brought in the 

 first Emperor Goose a male in beautiful spring plumage. After this, 

 small flocks came in rapidly until they were plentiful all about us. They 

 arrived quickly, skimming along near the ground, quite unlike the other 

 geese, which appeared high overhead with wild outbursts of clanging 

 cries, answered by those already on the ground. The river-channels 

 and the sea were still covered with ice, and the tundra half covered with 

 snow. 



At first, the Emperor Geese were difficult to approach, but as their 

 numbers increased they became less shy. When on the wing, they were 



easily distinguished from the other geese, even at 

 Coming of the considerable distances, by their proportionately shorter 



necks and heavier bodies, as well as by their short, 

 rapid wing-strokes, resembling those of the Black Brant. Like the latter, 

 they usually flew near the ground, rarely more than thirty yards high, 

 and commonly so close to the ground that their wing-tips almost touched 

 the surface on the down stroke. While flying from place to place, they 

 give at short intervals a harsh, strident call of two syllables, like kla-ha. 

 kla-ha, kla-ha, entirely different from the note of any other goose I have 

 ever heard. A group of them on a sand-bar or mud-flat often utter lower, 

 more cackling notes, in a conversational tone, which may he raised to 



