GEESE WHICH OCCUR IN CALIFORNIA. 
BY L. BELDING. 
The earlier writers credited this State with five forms of geese- 
These are now known to ornithologists as Chen hyperborea, Anser 
albifrons gambeli, Branta canadensis occidentalis, B. canadensis hutch- 
insti, and B. nigricans. Inthe fall of 1878 I sent a specimen. of 
Chen rassii, which I got at Stockton, to the National Museum. It 
may have been collected here previously, but this was the first that 
I know of. 
Number 76,654 of the U. S, National Museum, published in 
Partial List of Birds of Central California, under the name of Chez 
albatus, was probably a juvenile C. hyperborea, but I am not quite 
convinced that such is the fact. I think Mr. Ridgway ascertained 
that a/batus is a synonym of hyperdorea. 
In 1885 Mr. Ridgway gave the smallest goose of the canadensis 
pattern of coloration the name of Branta minima, but afterward, 
during the same year, reduced it to subspecific rank, with the name 
of B. canadensis minima. A year or two later Mr. C. H. Town- 
send published the fact that Mr. Fiebig had collected Philacte 
canagica at Eureka, and during the past winter Mr. Ridgway iden- 
tified parts of a goose [I sent the National Museum from Stockton 
as belonging to a true Chen cerulescens. 
Besides these, I believe the typical Branta canadensis occurs in 
California, but doubt if any specimen is in existence to prove the 
correctness of this opinion. 
It may not be inappropriate in this connection to remind the or- _ 
nithologists of California that we need a collection that contains a _ 
series of every American bird, and that without such a collection 
efforts to progress are unnecessarily difficult and will continue to be 
unsatisfactory. ; 
LessER SNow Goose. Chen hyperborea. This is the very — 
abundant white goose, which breeds in Alaska; reaches California © 
about the first of October (Stockton Sept. 29, 1881; Gridley Sept. 
30, 1884; Stockton Sep. 28, 1886), and leaves for its northern breed- 
ing grounds about the middle of April, a few remaining as late as 
the first of May. 
At Stockton, in 1880, I saw the last flock April 30. They had been 
rare since the twentieth. They were last seen at Gridley April 28, 
