CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 121 



Dall records specimens taken at Sitka. {Nelson.) Much rarer 

 than the Canada Goose in the Lower Fraser valley. {Brooks.) 

 Pacific coast region, from Sitka south, in winter, to California. 

 {A. 0. U. List.) 



iiic. Cackling Goose. 



Branta canadensis minima Ridgw. 1885. 



Nelson and Turner report this as being the most generally dis- 

 tributed goose in Alaska. Brooks and Fannin speak of it as a 

 winter resident on the coast of British Columbia. 



Breeding Notes. — The Upper Yukon District, the Yukon 

 Delta, and south to the Bristol Bay District abound with these 

 birds in the breeding season. They remain in these places until 

 about the first of October, while in the Aleutian Islands they 

 remain until the middle of November. This bird does not winter 

 in any part of Alaska. The eggs vary from seven to thirteen ; 

 they are laid in a carelessly-arranged nest composed of dead 

 grasses and a few feathers. The young remain with the parents 

 until the latter moult by the 20th August, by which time the 

 young are able to fly. The chief food of the birds is the berries 

 of the Vaccinium.. {Turner.) 



The last week of May finds many of these birds depositing 

 their eggs. Upon the grassy borders of ponds, in the midst of a 

 bunch of grass, or on a small knoll these birds find a spot where 

 they make a slight depression and perhaps line it with a scanty 

 layer of grasses, after which the eggs are laid, numbering from 

 five to eight. The eggs, like the birds, average smaller than 

 those of other geese. As the eggs are deposited the female 

 gradually lines the nest with feathers plucked from her breast 

 until they rest in a bed of down. When first laid the eggs are 

 white but by the time incubation begins all are soiled and dingy. 

 The female usually crouches low on her nest until an intruder 

 comes within one hundred yards or so, when she skulks oflE 

 through the grass or flies silently away, close to the ground, and 

 only raises a note of alarm when well away from the nest. The 

 young are hatched from the middle of June until the middle of 

 July. (Nelson!) 



