The Emperor Goose 



Tomales bays. Black Brants were formerly common at False Bay and 

 San Diego Bay, as also at San Pedro; but the astute birds have long since 

 resigned their claims upon these dangerous localities. 



No. 377 



Emperor Goose 



A. 0. U. No. 176. Philacte canagica (Sevastianoff). 



Description. — Adult: General plumage bluish gray tinged with lilac, each 

 feather sharply defined by a twinned crescent of black and white, producing a handsome 

 scaled appearance; head and back of neck white, tinged with brownish yellow; throat 

 and fore-neck, broadly, black; flight-feathers and their coverts slaty; tail white on ex- 

 posed portions above, bluish dusky basally and below. Bill chiefly livid flesh-color; 

 feet orange-yellow. Young birds are less conspicuously crescent-marked, and have 

 head and neck dusky, speckled with white. Length of adult 635-71 1.2 (25.00-28.00); 

 wing 381-431. 8 (15.00-17.00); tail 127-152. 4 (5.00-6.00); bill 38.1 (1.50); tarsus 76.2 

 (3.00). 



Recognition Marks. — Brant size; fine scaled appearance; top and sides of head, 

 and hind-neck, white, in sharp contrast with blackish of throat, distinctive; tail white. 



Nesting. — Does not breed in California. Nest: On upper beach, in driftwood; 

 or in salt marsh, of grasses, dead leaves, and down. Eggs: 3 to 8, usually 4; dull 

 white to dull ivory-3'ellow, becoming dingy ochraceous with age. Av. size 80.8 x 52.8 

 (3.18 x 2.08). Season: June. 



General Range. — Coasts and islands of Alaska and northwestern Siberia. 

 Breeds on the Tschukchi Peninsula, on St. Lawrence Island, and on the Alaskan shore 

 from Kotzebue Sound south to the mouth of the Kuskokwim. Winters from the 

 Commander and Near islands east through the Aleutians to Sitka, straggling south 

 to California. 



Occurrence in California. — Rare winter visitor to the northern coast and west- 

 ern interior — about a dozen records. 



Authorities. — C. H. Townsend, Auk, vol. iii., 1886, p. 491 (Humboldt Bay, 

 winter of 1884); Nelson, Rep. Nat. Hist. Coll. Alaska, 1887, p. 90 (desc. nesting habits, 

 nest, and eggs; Alaska); //. C.Bryant, Condor, vol. xvi., 1914, p. 92 (Sacramento and 

 San Joaquin valleys, several specimens); ibid., vol. xvii., 1917, p. 58 (Davis, Yolo Co.). 



THE BOAST that all geese come to California is almost literally true 

 so far as the western Anseres are concerned. ' Ten species (and subspecies) 

 is not a bad showing for a single state, and especially where only one 

 species (B. c. canadensis) remains to breed. Of those which come south in 

 late autumn the Emperor Goose is next to the rarest, and its occurrences, 

 still to be numbered on the fingers and toes, are to be rated casual rather 

 than regular. And curiously enough, this species, strictly maritime in its 

 northern haunts, has often yielded to the lure of the great interior valley, 



^he only exception among the Geese of the North Pacific being Branta canadensis occidentalism which was for 

 years erroneously attributed to our avifauna. 



1872 



