CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE NATURAL HISTORY OF ALASKA. 141 



The beach was searched for three rounded stones of near equal weight and size, generally 

 about one and one half inches in diameter, though this differed with each individual's strength, 

 women the also using lighter stones than those used by the men. 



After the stones had been selected a groove was cut round the stone and deepened sufficiently 

 to hold a strong thong of seal-skin about twelve inches long. Each stone was thus prepared with 

 the thoug securely tied to it. The three loose ends of the strings u ere then tied together, so that 

 the distance between two outstretched stones was about twenty inches. The strings were then taken 

 by the knotted ends and laid carefully in the palm of the hand. The stones that are attached to the 

 other ends of the strings were carefully disposed on the coiled thongs in the hand. A flock of 

 geese that came within distance would have this bolas thrown at them, and was certain to become 

 entangled on the neck or wings of some goose, which fell to the earth and was immediately 

 secured. The women were adepts at throwing these stones. An old woman told me that she had 

 often secured two and occasionally three geese at a single throw. 



About the 1st of October the geese are so fat that they frequently burst the skin on their, 

 breast when shot and fall to the ground. During the summer the geese are not molested. The 

 natives take many of the young and domesticate them. I have seen as many as fifty young ones 

 at a time at Attn Island, owned by the natives, to whom the goslings become much attached, 

 especially those who attend them. The goslings remain at huge during the winter, but have to 

 be fed during severe spells of weather. The house-tojis being covered with sod, the excessive heat 

 within causes the grassroots to continually send out new blades of grass. The geese are con- 

 stantly searching every house top to find the tender blades. One man had a pair of adult geese 

 which he assured me had been reared from goslings, and that they were then entering the sixth 

 year of their captivity. These two geese did not breed the second year of their life, but that every 

 year thereafter they had reared a brood of young, aud brought them home as soon as hatched 

 The wings and half of the tail feathers had to be clipped every season to prevent them migrating 

 In the fall of 1880 this pair of geese went away and were gone s"o long that the man supposed they 

 would not return. After some time they returned, and on catching them, to clip them, it was found 

 that the male had a shot-hole through the web of one foot and a second hole in the other leg. This, 

 doubtless, made the geese think " there is no place like home." This pair was killed later in the 

 season. 



As an illustration of the parental solicitude exhibited by these birds, I will relate that several 

 years ago a heavy fall of snow occurred in the latter part of June at the islands of Agattu and 

 Semichi, and covered the ground with more than three feet of snow. At that date the geese 

 were incubating. The jjeese did not quit their nests, and were suffocated. The natives found 

 scores of the birds sitting dead on their nests after the snow had melted 



After the 15th of November these geese leave the islands and are not to be seen until the 

 following April. At Atkha the'people rear a number of the goslings of this spi cies. The young 

 are obtained from the islets lying contiguous to the larger islands in that vicinity. From the 

 best information I could obtain this and Hutchins' Goose are the only species which breed on the 

 Aleutian chain ; and, none of them breeding east of Unashka Island. On Unashka, Amlia, Atkha, 

 Athakh, Kanaga, Tanaga, Kiska, Bouldyr, Semichi, and Agattu are the greatest breeding grounds 

 of the Aleutian Islands. On some of these islands foxes of various kinds are numerous, hence, 

 while they are excellent feeding grounds for the geese in the fall, the geese are compelled to rear 

 their young on the nearer islets, where the foxes cannot molest the young goslings, unless there 

 happen to be lakes containing small islands in them. There the geese are secure from foxes and 

 other animals. 



174. Branta nigricans (Lawr.). Black Brant. 



The Black Brant arrives at Saint Michael's from the 5th to the 15th of May; and, is usually 

 about a week to ten days later than the other geese. 



Along the eastern end of the canal, which separates Saint Michael's Island from the mainland, 

 this Brant is seldom seen ; aud then either singly, or in small flocks of less than a dozen individuals ; 

 and these are apparently stragglers from the great stream that pours northward between Saint 

 Michael's Island and Stewart's Island. Three or four days after the appearance of the first arrivals, 



