The Emperor Goose 



grounds, and the eggs were often placed among fragments of drift-wood 

 below the mark of the highest tides. Stray pairs were found nesting 

 further inland on the marshy meadows, also frequented by the other 

 species of geese, but on the salt flats, near tide water, the Emperor Geese 

 held undisputed possession. 



"On June 5 a female was found sitting upon her eggs on a little knoll, 

 with a small fragment of bleached drift-wood within a few yards of her, 

 and as she lay with extended neck, although the ground was almost bare, 

 my Eskimo and I passed within a few feet of her on either side, without 

 seeing her. We were about 20 steps beyond when she left the nest with a 

 startled cry, thus drawing our notice. The three eggs were in full view 

 when we turned. They rested in a depression with no sign of lining. The 

 same ruse caused us to pass other nests, but the birds betrayed them each 

 time by flying off with a loud outcry almost as soon as our backs were 

 presented." 



An enlightened policy of governmental protection will probably 

 succeed in preserving this unique species. Testimony appears to differ, 

 however, as to whether there has been an actual decrease in numbers 

 within the past two decades. If we may judge from the following account, 

 which is Nelson's, we may even believe that the advent of the white man 

 has proved a blessing. 



"The young are hatched the last of June or first of July, and the adult 

 birds undergo the summer moult from the last of July to the middle of 

 August. During this season the Eskimo set long lines of nets across the 

 marshes and make drives of water-fowl which have moulted their quill 

 feathers. The slaughter is enormous; the wasteful savages render it still 

 worse by killing thousands of young birds which are entrapped, saying 

 that they will thus prevent their being in the way during the next drive. 

 Tens of thousands of geese are annually killed in the drives from the 

 Yukon mouth south to the Kuskoquim. In fall, as these geese regain their 

 wings, they gather from along the sea-coast and seek their food from place 

 to place until the approach of winter sends them a few hundred miles south 

 to the Aleutian Islands. The natives south of the Yukon use the skins 

 of the Emperor Goose for making clothing, as they also use the skins of 

 other water-fowl." 



Truth to tell, our interest in this bird is purely esthetic. Its flesh is 

 conceded to be both coarse and rank, "worse than the Snow Goose," which 

 is surely "going some." There is also, according to Turner, a disgust- 

 ing odor about this bird, which even skinning and freezing will only 

 partially subdue. 



1874 



