254 
The Emperor Goose 
show it to be a strictly salt-water, coastal species in both summer and 
winter. Its food is sought between tide-lines, either on oozy flats, as at 
the Yukon mouth, or along the rocky beaches of the wild Aleutian shores. 
One spring, during my residence at St. Michael, it became possible to 
fulfil my long-cherished desire to visit the breeding-grounds of these 
geese and of many other water-fowl in the Yukon delta, and I left St. 
Michael early in May with an Eskimo and a dog-sledge. The tundra 
was still clothed in winter white, except here and there a bare spot on 
the sunny side of a knoll, and the sea was covered with unbroken ice to 
the far horizon. The hoarse, crowing notes of the Willow Ptamigan 
the land ; yet the day I started the temperature was well below zero. 
At the border of the Yukon delta, Eskimos familiar with the country 
were employed to lead us to the desired nesting-ground of the Emperor 
Goose. Nearly half a day’s journey among the maze of ice-covered 
channels of the delta brought us to a low, flat island, where our guide as- 
sured me many “Nachau-thluk” would soon arrive, to rear their young. It 
was a bare, desolate spot, 'with only a few scattered alders on the upper 
side of the islands, and an unbroken view out over the frozen sea to the 
west. A tent was put up on a slight rise and, after a stock of drift-wood 
had been gathered, the guides took the sledge and left me with my 
Eskimo companion to await the arrival of the birds. Later, when the 
ice went out, they returned for me with kyaks. 
A few White-fronted and Cackling Geese gave noisy evidence of 
their presence, but it was not until May 22 that the Eskimo brought in the 
first Emperor Goose — a male in beautiful spring plumage. After this, 
small flocks came in rapidly until they were plentiful all about us. They 
arrived quickly, skimming along near the ground, quite unlike the other 
geese, which appeared high overhead with wild outbursts of clanging 
cries, answered by those already on the ground. The river-channels 
and the sea were still covered with ice, and the tundra half covered with 
snow. 
At first, the Emperor Geese were difficult to approach, but as their 
numbers increased they became less shy. When on the, wing, they were 
they usually flew near the ground, rarely more than thirty yards high, 
and commonly so close to the ground that their wing-tips almost touched 
the surface on the down stroke. While flying from place to place, they 
give at short intervals a harsh, strident call of two syllables, like kla-ha, 
kla-ha, kla-ha, entirely different from the note of any other goose I have 
ever heard. A group of them on a sand-bar or mud-flat often utter lower, 
more cackling notes, in a conversational tone, which may be raised to 
Spring on the 
Tundra 
were beginning to be heard on the tundra, and occa- 
sional scouts from the coming army of White- fronted 
and Cackling Geese passed high overhead, spying out 
easily distinguished from the other geese, even at 
considerable distances, by their proportionately shorter 
necks and heavier bodies, as well as by their short. 
rapid wing-strokes, resembling those of the Black Brant. Like the latter. 
