98 



THE OOLOGIST 



THE PINK-FOOTED GOOSE IN ITS 

 BREEDING QUARTERS 



By Major W. M. Congreve, M. B. O. IT. 



The Pink-footed Goose is a well 

 known winter visitor to the British 

 Isles, but like all members of the 

 Goose race it is extremely wary, and 

 consequently more often seen and 

 heard at a distance, than obtained by 

 those who indulge in Goose shooting 

 for sport and otherwise. 



At present it is only known to 

 definitely breed in the Arctic island 

 of Spitsbergen, but it probably does 

 so in Franz-Joseph Land, and possibly 

 also in Iceland. It was during June 

 and July 1922 that I met with this 

 species at close quarters in Spits- 

 bergen, and on that island it can be 

 described as anything but rare, and 

 is to be met with breeding on the 

 slopes of many of the wider glacier 

 stream valleys, on the sides of pre- 

 cipitous-sided gorges formed by gla- 

 cier streams emerging from the moun- 

 tains, and also on gradual slopes in 

 the immediate vicinity of fjord or 

 open sea. Their nests cannot nor- 

 mally be described as being particu- 

 larly easy to find, owing to the fact 

 that the sitting bird sits extremely 

 close, while the gander on guard 

 either leaves the immediate vicinity 

 of the nest, when one is some dis- 

 tance from it, or else stands so 

 motionless beside its mate that he is 

 quite invisible except at very close 

 range, amid the normal awful deso- 

 lation of stones and weather-worn 

 lichens and mosses, that cover the 

 surface of Spitsbergen. 



As a general rule their nests are 

 more or less scattered but they are 

 sometimes in colonies and consequent- 

 ly when a colony is discovered by 

 the inhabitants of a mining camp or 

 sealer, their eggs are taken wholesale 

 for food. One cannot blame the in- 

 habitants of such an utterly desolate 



land for varying their imported food 

 with fresh eggs when available, but it 

 is trying, to say the least of it, when 

 after many disappointments, an orni- 

 thologist discovers a colony, only to 

 find nest after nest empty of eggs 

 which have been taken wholesale for 

 food! 



It was a colony of this nature that 

 I visited, with Messrs. F. C. R. Jour- 

 dain and B. W. Tucker on July 3rd, 

 1922 and from it over 100 eggs had 

 been taken for food by Norwegian 

 miners earlier in the summer. For- 

 tunately for us four nests still sur- 

 vived, but three of them only coxi- 

 tained respectively 2, 2, 1, hard sat 

 eggs, and it is a moot point whether 

 such short sets are natural. Hovv^ever, 

 the nest which is illustrated in this 

 article had, owing to its inaccessibil- 

 ity, undoubtedly survived the on- 

 slaught of the egg eaters, for it con- 

 tained five eggs. Never shall I for- 

 get the first view I had of this nest. 

 It was about 20 feet down a vertical 

 cliff bordering a boiling torrent, 

 through which fell a considerable 

 waterfall of turbid melted glacier 

 water, and I came suddenly in full 

 sight of it, on a level with my feet, 

 across a 30 foot wide yawning chasm. 

 On the nest and about 50 feet away 

 from me was a Pink-footed Goose 

 sitting tightly in a neat hollow on a 

 herbage covered ledge immediately 

 across, and about 15 feet above the 

 roaring cataract; but, the really amaz- 

 ing sight was the gander mounting 

 guard within a couple of feet of its 

 sitting mate. It was not the first 

 time I had seen a gander Pink-foot 

 mounting guard, quite motionless, 

 with widely set pink legs and anxious 

 expression, but, what I had not seen 

 before, was the priceless exhibition of 

 a normally quite unapproachable 

 Goose try and camouflage itself by 

 turning over on its side by leaning 



