ANSERINE — THE GEESE — BERNICLA. 
469 
'wary, and kept well out of gunshot range. On the 21st of June I found the first 
nest with eggs in lat. 82° 33' 1ST. ; subsequently many were found. When the young 
are hatched the parent birds and broods congregate on the lakes, or in open water- 
spaces near the shore, in large flocks ; by the end of July the old birds were moulting, 
and unable to fly, so that they were easily secured. . . . The flesh of this bird is most 
excellent. The gander remains in the vicinity of the nest while the goose is sitting, 
and accompanies the young brood. In one instance, where I killed a female as she 
left her nest, the gander came hissing at me.” 
Dr. Walker met with this Goose on the coast of Greenland, near Godthaab, and 
afterward, in the mouth of Bellot’s Strait, saw it moving northward in May. Some 
of these birds constructed nests on the cliffs which form the sides of the Strait. 
According to Mr. Barnston, this Goose is the Callewapimaw of the Cree Indians ; 
and is still but little cared for at Hudson’s Bay. He speaks of it as keeping out to 
sea, on the shoals, near low-water mark. It arrives the latest of all the birds of its 
family. 
According to Professor Reinhardt, it is one of the common birds of Greenland, 
where, on the entire coast occupied by the Danish settlements, it appears only on its 
passage to or from its breeding-places, which must be in very high latitude — at the 
least north of the seventy-third parallel. 
Professor Alfred Newton states (“Ibis,” 1865) that on Parry’s Expedition one of 
its nests, containing two eggs, was obtained at Ross Inlet, latitude 80° 48' N., on 
the 16tlx of J une, which was at that time probably the most northern land ever visited 
by man. It was then also seen in large flocks about Walden and Little Table Islands. 
Dr. Malmgren found it breeding on the Depot Holme, Spitzbergen, and also on the 
shore of the mainland and in Treurenberg Bay, showing that Professor Torell was in 
error in stating that it only breeds on islets. 
Sir James Ross states that the Brant Goose did not remain near Felix Harbor to 
breed, but went still farther north ; and that during the summer months it was only 
seen in the highest northern latitudes that were visited. It was found breeding on 
Parry’s Islands, in latitude 74° and 75°. Captain Scoresby reported that it was not 
common at Spitzbergen ; but Messrs. Evans and Sturge, in their visit to that group 
of islands, found it breeding in immense numbers, and reported the ground covered 
with its nests. These were constructed on the beach, and were perfect masses of 
down and feathers, in which three or four eggs were buried. This was on the South 
Cape Islands. 
Mr. G. Gillett found this species quite common in Matthew’s Strait, Nova Zembla; 
Yon Heuglin also saw it in large flocks at the same place ; and Yon Baer mentions its 
occurrence on Nova Zembla, and adds that it is not considered by the Russians to be 
a Goose. It collects in much greater numbers upon the Island of Ivolgujew, where ex- 
peditions are sent to kill and salt these birds. A merchant of Archangel informed 
Von Baer that on one occasion fifteen thousand Geese were killed there in two hunts. 
Middendorff enumerates it as one of the birds of Arctic Siberia, occurring only in the 
extreme north. 
Mr. Boardman informs me that this bird is common in the fall about Macey’s Bay, 
in the Bay of Fundy. It occurs in varying numbers on the New England coast, both 
in the spring and fall, and is especially abundant on Cape Cod in the spring, or from 
March to May. 
Mr. W. Hapgood, in a very full account of the habits of this species (“ Forest and 
Stream,” Sept. 2, 1875), states that in ordinary seasons Brant begin to be common at 
Cape Cod early in March, and continue coming and going until the end of April. At 
