The Scabby-Nosed Wavey

Until this year, a small bird called Ross's goose had a unique distinction: it was the only North American goose or duck whose breeding ground was not known.

Hardly larger than a duck, Ross's goose is the smallest and rarest of American species. It is white, with black wing tips. Northmen call it the "galoot" or "scabby-nosed wavey" (its bill has rough bumps at the base). Its official name came from Bernard R. Ross, a Hudson's Bay Co. factor at Fort Resolution. In autumn the birds migrate south and west to spend the winter in California valleys.

Every year for four years Ornithologist Charles E. Gillham of the Biological Survey in Washington has trekked into northern Canada, to ask natives questions about the Ross's goose. It was suspected that their breeding ground was somewhere near the mouth of the Perry River, which runs into the Arctic Ocean at Queen Maud Gulf, southeast of big Victoria Island. Last summer Gillham chartered a plane, flew over the Perry River region, saw so many of the birds that he was certain the breeding grounds were there. But floating ice in the bay prevented a landing.

Gillham made friends with Angus Gavin, a Hudson's Bay Co. trader, and whipped up in Gavin a hot excitement for the search. Gavin had himself transferred to the Perry River post. Some Canadian sportsmen and bird-lovers proselytized Gavin's boss, who authorized and financed an expedition. Gavin and a friend set out with a 16-ft. sled carrying supplies and an 18-ft. canoe. They sledged five miles up the river, then reached open water and took to the canoe. Fifteen miles farther up they came to an unnamed, uncharted lake, dotted with small islands. On the islands were the breeding and nesting grounds of Ross's goose.

There were about 5,000 birds. They protested loudly when the men came near, refused to get off their nests until the men were close enough to snap pictures (see cut). The nests, about a foot across, were of grass lined with soiled white down. There were four creamy white eggs in the average clutch. The men took two goose specimens and five eggs, started back down the river. Last week the specimens and eggs were safe at the Canadian National Museum in Ottawa, and it was announced to the world that the breeding ground of Ross's goose, sought for more than a half-century, had been found.

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