CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. I23 



Breeding Notes. — The nest of this bird^ is placed in rather 

 marshy ground and is a simple depression, lined with down with 

 which the eggs are completely covered when the bird leavesthe 

 nest. They sometimes begin to sit on four eggs and sometimes 

 lay as many as six. (^Murdoch.) 



MUSEUM SPECIMENS. 



One pair shot at Kadiak Island, Alaska. 



175. Barnacle Goose. 



Branta leucopsis (Bechst.) Bannister. 1870. 



A regular autumnal visitor at Julianshaab, and may perhaps 

 breed in Greenland ; recorded also from the east coast. {Arct. 

 Man.) 



LXVII. PHILACTE Bannister. 1870. 



176. Emperor Goose. 



Philacte canagica (Sevast.) Bannister. 1870. 



Among the various species of birds, more or less peculiar to 

 Alaska, this goose is perhaps the most noteworthy. The limited 

 area covered by its migrations, its narrow range, reaching only 

 across the area bounded by the Aleutian Islands to the south, 

 and the vicinity of Behring .Strait on the north, and the little 

 known of its life-history caused me to give it much attention at 

 St. Michael. {Nelson.) The habitat of this goose is strictly littoral- 

 maritime, frequenting only the reefs, rocks and shoals of the salt- 

 water and brackish lagoons of the mainland coast. It is never 

 found in fresh-water localities excepting those contiguous to the 

 sea, such as the lower Yukon Delta, mouth of the Kuskoquim 

 River, and the bars lying off the mouth of the Nuskagak River. 

 {Turner.) Occurs regularly on the Pribyloff Islands in summer, 

 but does not breed. {Townsend.) One specimen killed at Che- 

 mainus, Vancouver Island, December, 1894. {Fanning 



Breeding Notes. — On May 22nd my Eskimo hunter brought 

 in the first one, a magnificent male in fine plumage. From that 

 time on they became more common daily until the first of June, 

 when they arrived in full force. Soon after their arrival they 

 began to pair, and were seen flying in couples, keeping close to 

 the ground, rarely flying twenty or thirty yards high, and often 

 barely keeping clear of the surface. Early in June they 

 begin depositing their eggs on the flat, marshy islands bordering 



