More Records of the Emperor Goose in California
More Records of the Emperor Goose in California.
Mr. Vernon Shepherd, a prominent taxidermist of San Francisco, has reported to me that he has known of at least a dozen specimens of the Emperor Goose (Philacte canagica) having been taken in California since 1996. Three of this number he took himself near Dixon, Solano County, California. He has donated to the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology a mounted specimen of a male taken by a market hunter at Colusa, Colusa County, in November, 1912. The specimen was sent to the market in San Francisco and was obtained by Mr. Shepherd from L. Scatena Company.
Mr. Wm. Hackmeier, another taxidermist of San Francisco, has reported the two following records, the first of which was verified by correspondence with the collector. Male specimen taken November 15, 1913, 10 miles west of Modesto, Stanislaus County, California, by W. D. Toomes. The bird came to the blind alone and was shot. The specimen was mounted by Mr. Hackmeier and is now in the possession of the collector at Modesto.
An individual identified by Mr. Hackmeier as an immature male Emperor Goose was taken near Ingomar, Merced County, California, in December, 1912, by Louis Pfitzer. The bird was not preserved.
The records for Stanislaus and Merced Counties are the first known instances of the occurrence of the Emperor Goose in the San Joaquin Valley. There have been but four previous published records of the occurrence of this goose in California.
H. C. BRYANT
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley
