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PROCEEDINGS OF THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 115(4):706-707. 2002. Correct type locality of the Emperor Goose {Chen canagica) Daniel D. Gibson University of Alaska Museum, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-6960, U.S.A. — Abstract. The American Ornithologists' Union's (1910, 1931, 1957, 1983, 1998) inference that the type locality of Chen canagica (Sewastianoff, 1802) is Kanaga Island, Aleutian Islands, misinterprets the author's arcane reference to Kodiak Island and overlooks a published 19th-century explanation thereof. His curiosity about the specific epithet of tans de Vile Kyktak appellee Caniagues ou the Emperor Goose and his knowledge of Canagues). Unmistakably the same word, southwestern Alaska led Turner (1886:143) "Kaniag" was, variously, the original Inuit to explain long ago that Sewastianoff name of Kodiak Island (Turner 1886:143) (1802:349) had doubtless been referring not and the tribal name ofthe people ofKodiak to Kanaga Island, Aleutians, but to Kodiak Island (Bancroft 1886:224). With a single Island as I'lsle Canaga ou Kyktak, "one of vowel change, today these people call the Aleutian [sic] Islands nearest the North themselves Koniag (see www.koniag.com). American coasts and situated behind the The Alaska Native Language Center Alaska Peninsula" {une des lies Aleoutes (ANLC) explained Kyktak, Sewastianoff's les plus proches des cotes de I'Amerique alternative island name, thus: "The name septent—rionale, et sitae derriere le Cap. Al- for Kodiak Island is spelled Qikehtaq. It iazka) cf. Stresemann (1950:127). Even means 'The island.' [Kodiak is Alaska's though Kodiak Island (57°N—, 153°W) lies largest island.] The Russians wrote it in dif- 600 km from the Aleutians the 1800-km ferent ways, among them Kyktak, and chain of islands separating the Bering Sea eventually the extremely garbled variant — from the North Pacific Ocean it has never Kodiak was adopted as the standard. The been unusual for islands as far east and name Koniag, or [Sewastianoff's] 'Can- . . . north as Kodiak to be referred to as part of aga,' comes from Aleut Kanaaghixh, which the Aleutians, probably because of shared is their ethnonym for the Alutiiq people of inhospitable weather and seas and treeless Kodiak Island, the Alaska Peninsula, and landscape. (For an example of this associ- Prince William Sound ... in short [Se- . . . ation preserved in avian nomenclature, note wastianoff] was indeed referring to Kodiak that Sterna aleutica Baird, 1869 was named Is. and its inhabitants" (J. Leer, ANLC, and described from a Kodiak Island holo- University ofAlaska Fairbanks, in litt.). To- type.) Kanaga Island (51°N, 177°W) lies in day the name numbers (in several spellings: the central Aleutians, 1000 km from "the "Kikhtak," "Kichtak," "Kikhtowik," North American coasts." "Kuktak") among 14 historical names at- Sewastianoff (loc. cit.) formed his name tributed to Kodiak Island by the Dictionary for the island (Canaga) as well as his spe- ofAlaska Place Names (Orth 1971:535). To cific epithet for the Emperor Goose {cana- that list can be added both '"I'lsle Canaga'' gica) from ''Caniagues ou Canagues,"' as and the spelling ''Kyktak.'' he stated the island's people were called {le No doubt misled by Sewastianoff's ref- nom de I'espece, c'est a dire Canagica, a erence to the Aleutians, which were under- ete impose a cet Oiseau du nom de la pre- stood to form an important part of the win- AOU miere He, oil de celiii des principaux habi- ter range of the Emperor Goose, the — . VOLUME 115, NUMBER 4 707 (1910, 1931) mistook for synonyms the -. 1957. Check-listofNorthAmericanBirds.5th homonyms Canaga and Kanaga and first ed. AOU, Baltimore. -. 1983. Check-listofNorthAmericanBirds.6th identified the type locality as "Probably ed. AOU, Lawrence, Kansas. Kanaga (or Kyktak) Island, Aleutian Is- -. 1998.Check-listofNorthAmericanBirds.7th lands," an error perpetuated thereafter as ed. AOU, Washington, DC. simply "Kanaga Island, Aleutian Islands" Bancroft, H. H. 1886. History ofAlaska. 1730-1885. (AOU 1957, 1983, 1998). Founded in 1792, Vol. 33, in The Works of Hubert Howe Ban- the community that became the town ofKo- croft. A. L. Bancroft, San Francisco. Orth, D. J. 1971. Dictionary of Alaska Place Names. diak was the first permanent Russian settle- U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper567. ment in Alaska, and as a focal point of ex- Reprint of 1967 edition, with minor revisions. ploration Kodiak Island became the ty—pe lo- Sewastianoff, I'A. 1802. Description d'une nouvelle cality ofmore than a dozen avian taxa the espece de canard et d"une variete de I'huitrier, very first of them Chen canagica, which qui se trouvent dans le cabinet d'histoire natu- relle de I'Academie Imperiale des Sciences. continues to reach its eastern limit ofwinter Nova Acta Academiae Scientiarum Imperialis range in the Kodiak archipelago. Petropolitanae 13:346-351 Stresemann,E. 1950. Dr. C. H.Mercksornithologische Literature Cited Aufzeichnungen wahrend derBillingsschenEx- pedition von Ochotsk nach Alaska (1787- American Ornithologists' Union. 1910. Check-list of 1791).—Zoologische Jahrbucher 78:97-132. North American Birds. 3rd ed. (revised). AOU, Turner, L. M. 1886. Birds, Part V. Pages 115-196 in New York. Contributions to the natural history of Alaska. . 1931.Check-listofNorthAmericanBirds.4th No. n, Arctic Series, Signal Service, U.S. ed. AOU, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Army. USGPO, Washington.