ANAKTITVUK PASS 35 



May 15, 1954. Southbound flights are seen in late summer but they 

 land less often than in spring. One flock passed over Kangomavik 

 on August 26. None are known to nest in the mountains, and the 

 migrating flocks stop for only a brief time. During nesting season 

 they are also on the Colville Eiver near Umiat. These two nesting 

 areas are different and separate, one being on the rivers in thickly 

 wooded country and the other 250 miles north, on the treeless arctic 

 slope beyond the intervening mountains. 



Geese of the Canada type are known to the Nunamiut in the moun- 

 tains and on the coast as EhsrahgotUih, "light-colored cheek." The 

 occurrence of differences in size has been observed but has not been 

 regarded systematically. 



Many of the geese of this as well as of other kinds are regularly 

 seen in migration, and judging from those which are seen and heard 

 a great many traverse the mountains. Often they fly higher than the 

 mountain peaks and it is thought that they need not follow the valleys 

 except occasionally, when they wish to land. 



Branta nigricans (Lawrence) 



1 male May 30, 1952 weight 1494 gr. 



The single specimen is normal to the characteristics of Pacific black 

 brant (Delacour, 1952). Its testes at 20 and 25 mm. in length were 

 probably not mature. 



The earliest recorded observations of brant are May 26, 1950, May 

 26, 1951, and May 29, 1952. Usually they are the most commonly 

 seen geese in spring, and land most frequently. But in 1953, when 

 other geese were numerous, no brant were seen. Often they fly low 

 through the valley, in their swerving and circling flight calling as if 

 seeking a landing place. At other times they fly direct at the eleva- 

 tion of the high mountain peaks. 



Brant have not been observed in the mountains during the late 

 summer on the southbound course. Along the arctic coast near Bar- 

 row, I did not see migrating flocks of brant as often in the spring as 

 in the late summer when the flocks commonly flew westward low in 

 the air above the coastal tundra or over the sea close to the coast. 

 Their migratory course in spring probably crosses the interior of arctic 

 Alaska at many points, for they are known there by the Nunamiut in 

 Chandler Lake, Okomilaga, and Killik Valleys. They are also 

 common spring migrants at Kobuk and Shungnak, whence they ap- 

 pear to head northward in the direction of Howard Pass. 



The Nunamiut call brant NiMhmgak, meaning "almost like (white- 

 fronted) geese." It is well known to them that many brant nest along 

 the arctic coast about the mouth of the Colville River, but none are 

 known to remain for nesting in the interior. 



