82 NORTH AMERICAN DICKS, GEESE, AND SWANS. 
Branta leucopsis | Bechst ) . Barnacle Goose. 
This species inhabits the northern parts of the Old World, and in 
migration reaches Greenland, where it has been taken repeatedly on 
the eastern coast around Scoresby Sound, and a few times on the west- 
ern side at Julianshaab and Fiskernoes. 
The barnacle goose has been taken several times in the United States, 
and though some of these birds may have escaped from captivity, it is 
not probable that all are escapes. The species is recorded as taken at 
Currituck Sound, North Carolina, October 31, 1870; near Jamaica Hay, 
Long Island, about October 20, 1876; North Chatham. Mass.. Novem- 
ber 1, 1885; Marshfield, Vt.; Montreal, Canada: Okak. Labrador; 
Racine, Wis., December, 1850; and one at James Bay, near Rupert 
House. 
Philacte canagica (Sevast. ). Emperor Goose. 
Breeding range. — This is an Arctic species, with a very restricted 
range in the vicinity of Bering Sea. It breeds along the Alaskan coast 
from the mouth of the Kuskokwim River north to Cape Espenberg 
and the southern shore of Kotzebue Sound. The principal breeding 
ground is near the mouth of the Yukon River, but a few pass west to 
St. Lawrence Island and to the Asiatic coast, and breed on the Chuk- 
chi Peninsula in the vicinity of East Cape. 
Winter range. — The Aleutian chain is the main winter home of the 
species, outside of which a few are found west to the Near and the Com- 
mander Islands and east to Bristol Bay and Sitka. Stragglers wander 
south and have been taken twice on Vancouver Island and three times 
in California — Eureka, winter of 1884; Gridley, November 1, 1895; San 
Francisco market, October 8, 1900. Four were taken and a dozen or 
more noted, evidently members of a straggling flock, December 12, 
1902, in the Hawaiian Islands. 
Spring migration. — At the extreme southwestern part of the range 
the northward movement begins late in March. The latter part of 
April the emperor goose moves from the southern to the northern 
shores of the Aleutian Islands and remains there for several weeks. 
As soon as the melting snows expose mud flats on the coast of Norton 
Sound the birds make the ocean flight to their breeding grounds, 
where they arrive from May 15 to 25. Eggs have been taken June 5, 
and young birds late in June. 
I'u/I migration. The geese regain their feathers after the summer 
molt about the middle of August, and a few at once start south. The 
earliest date on the Aleutians is August 31. Most of the species 
remain at the breeding grounds until October and then are forced 
slowly south by the approach of winter, scarcely reaching the south- 
western limit of the usual winter range before early December. 
