294 
TRANSACTIONS OF TITE 
jjreat marshes near the Yukon mouth. The eggs, two in number, vary 
from pure white to fulvous, as do tlic parents on the head and neck, 
apparently without regard to age. The eggs are usually on a tussock 
quite surrounded with water, and very near it, so that the female must 
sometimes sit with her feet in the water. The Indian name is " Toh- 
wdhy The eggs are usually laid about May 21st at Nulato, but later at 
the Yukon mouth. In July the swans moult and can not fly, and the 
Indians have great sport spearing them with bone tridents. They are 
very shy birds, and usually shot on the wing or with a bullet. This 
species, if hung long enough, is tender, well flavored, and excellent eat- 
ing. D. 
Common ; all the specimens of swans examined were of this species, 
all having a patch of yellow on the bill. The spot was not large, how- 
ever, and in one or two instances was only just visible, and might be 
overlooked on a casual observation. This bird generally flies in small 
flocks of ten or a dozen, and in a single line, advancing obliquely like 
the geese. B. 
133. Cjjgnus buccinator Rich. (562.) Trumpeter Swan. Obtained 
on the headwaters of the Frazer River by Mr, Elliott, and at Fort Yukon 
by Mr. Lockhart, who also got the eggs. D, 
134. Anser {Chen) hyperboreus Pall. (563.) White Goose. Indian 
name " Holikoh^'' or " great white bird." Common in the spring. This 
species arrives about May 9th, flying from the southward up the river; 
but they only stop to feed and rest on the marshes during the dusky 
twilight of the night, and are off" with the early light of an Arctic spring. 
They can only be shot on the wing, or at night. They do not breed in 
the vicinity of the Yukon, nor do they return in the fall by the way tiiey 
came. The skin is very thin and tender, resembling that of Chloephaga. 
These birds are almost always lean, and have a perceptible odor to their 
flesh, which is, however, pretty good eating. The eye is dark brown. 
These geese are usually all gone by May 30th, or earlier. D. 
Common in early spring. When out hunting on the flats up the 
canal, at daybreak, on the 5th of May, 1866, I noticed all the flocks of 
this species, and of Cygnus cmiericanus, flying souih. Fro.m this I judged 
that they generally travel in the niglit time, and the direction of their 
flight, to the northward of this, being over the open sound, they had 
unawares passed over their camping ground, and as soon as daylight had 
discovered to them their error, they turned backwards in their course, 
B. 
135. Anser Gambelii Hartl. (565.) White-fronted Goose. Extremely 
common. Arrives at Nulato about May 6th to 10th. Breeds, all along 
the river, gregariously, laying six to ten eggs, in a depression in ihe sand, 
without any kind of a nest or lining. I have found the eggs all along the 
river, from F'ort Yukon to the sea, and thence to St. Michael's. In very 
