EMPEROR GOOSE. 



'T^HIS handsome' Goose is one of the very few water 

 fowl that are met with in North America that I have 

 never seen alive, and on account of its very limited disper- 

 sion, one desiring to study its habits in its native haunts 

 must visit that portion of Alaska lying between Behring 

 Strait on the north and the Aleutian Islands on the south. 

 This species breeds about the mouth of the Yukon, and 

 around St. Michael's, and probably on the north coast of 

 Siberia west of Behring Straits, and passes the winter 

 about the eastern islands of the Aleutian chain. It is 

 seldom seen within the limits of the United States, but 

 occasionally a straggler is taken within our borders, as 

 in the winter of 1884 when one was procured in Hum- 

 boldt Bay, Northern California, by Mr. Charles Fiebig, 

 who says the Emperor Geese occur there at long 

 intervals. 



Mr. E. W. Nelson, to whom we are indebted for much 

 of our knowledge of the habits and economy of the va- 

 rious birds that periodically visit the Arctic regions, has 

 given some interesting notes of this species, of which the 

 following is a transcript. From the 22d of May to June 

 I this Goose becomes daily more common at St. 

 Michael's, until at the latter date the main body has ar- 

 rived, and their forms and notes are as familiar as are 

 those of the White-fronted and White-collared or Cack- 

 ling Geese. The first comers are very shy, but become 

 less so when they begin to arrive in flocks. At a long 

 distance they can be distinguished by their heavy bodies, 



