174 BULLETIN 130, UNITED STAl'ES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



horea^ which can be nearly, if not quite, matched with birds from 

 California. The measurements of the greater snow goose do not 

 well illustrate its real superiority in size; it is a much heavier bird 

 than its western relative, with a much more stocky build, thicker 

 neck, and larger head. It is generally recognizable at a glance, in 

 the flesh. 



The breeding range of the greater snow goose must be determined 

 largely by elimination, though it is clearly indicated b}^ two speci- 

 mens from northern Greenland ; these are the only Greenland speci- 

 mens of snow geese that we have; they are both typical nivalis; 

 and one was the parent of a downy young. The average measure- 

 ments of 26 birds from the Arctic coasts of Alaska. Canada, and 

 Baffin Land agree very closely with those from California and the 

 interior, and none of them are any larger than the largest birds from 

 these localities. A study of the average measurements of 20 sets 

 of eggs from Arctic America, collected at various points from Point 

 J^arrow to Baffin Land, shows no correlation of size with locality; 

 the largest 2 sets came from Cape Bathurst and Franklin Bay ; and 

 the smallest 2 came from Mackenzie Bay and Point Barrow. Judg- 

 ing from the evidence shown in the measurements of both birds and 

 eggs, it seems fair to assume that nimilis does not breed anywhere 

 on the Arctic coast from Alaska to Baffin Land and that all the 

 breeding birds of that region are referable to hyperhorea. This 

 leaves for nivaMs a known breeding range in northern Greenland, 

 which probably extends into Ellesmere Land, Grinnell Land, and 

 Grant Land. 



Spring. — Although we have very little data on the subject, what 

 evidence we have seems to indicate that the greater snow geese, which 

 spend the winter on the Atlantic coast, migrate overland across Xew 

 England to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and then across the Labrador 

 Peninsula to their Arctic summer home. William Brewster (1909) 

 published a letter from M. Abbott Frazar giving an account of a 

 large flock of snow geese which he saw migrating at Townsend, 

 Massachusetts, on April 13, 1908, There were at least 75 birds in 

 the flock. Although the subspecies is in doubt, the chances are that 

 these were greater snow geese. The following note, published by 

 Harrison F. Lewis (1921), throws some light on the subject: 



Most recent writers on the waterfowl of northeastern North America speak 

 of the fjreater .'jnow goose {Chen hyperhoreii-s nii^ali^ [Forst.]) as a rare bird 

 in that area and appear to pay little or no attention to the fact that Mr. C. B. 

 Dionne, on pages 10^110 of his book, " Les Oiseaux de la Province de Quebec " 

 (1906), states of this subspecies that it "'is very common and often occurs in 

 considerable flocks in spring and fall in certain places on our shores, notably 

 at St. .Toachim, where I have seen flocks of three or four thousand individuals, 

 on the Island of Orleans, and as far as the Sea-Wolves' Batture." The three 



