178 BULLETIN 130, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



when these geese are moving in small flocks of six or seven, as they are then 

 more apt to come near the shore looliing for favorable feeding places or spot& 

 on the beach to sand themselves. 



H. H. Bailey tells me that these geese are not now as common on the 

 Virginia coast as formerly, that they do not come until cold weather 

 in midwinter, and that they spend most of their time in Chesapeake 

 Ba}^ or on the ocean, resorting to the hollows among the sand dunes 

 of the outer beaches when these are partially covered with snow 

 and ice, 



DISTKIBUTION 



Breeding range. — Positively known to breed only in northern 

 Greenland (McCormick Bay, latitude 77° 40' north, and North Star 

 Bay). Probably breeds also in Ellesmere Land, Grinnell Land 

 (Fort Conger), and Grant Land. 



Winter range. — Mainly, if not wholly, on the Atlantic coasts of 

 Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, from Chesapeake Bay to 

 Core Sound. Probably all the birds from farther south are refer- 

 able to hyferhorea. 



Spring migration. — Directly north, overland across New England 

 and the Labrador Peninsula. Early dates of arrival: New York, 

 Shelter Island, April 3; Massachusetts, Townsend, April 13; 

 Maine, Scarborough, April 4; Quebec, St. Joachim, March 31, and 

 Hatley, April 6; Greenland, Etah, June 10. Late dates of de- 

 parture : North Carolina, Currituck Sound, March 6 ; Maine, George- 

 town, April 25, and Lubec, April 30. 



Fall migration. — A reversal of spring route. Early dates of ar- 

 rival : Quebec, St. Lawrence River, October 12 ; Massachusetts, West- 

 field, November 24; Connecticut, Portland, November 20; North 

 Carolina, Currituck Sound, December 11. 



Casual records. — An immature bird in the United States National 

 Museum is labeled Hudson Bay, with no further data. Probably 

 all records for Bermuda and the West Indies are referable to hyper- 

 horea., as that is the wider-ranging form, but some records may 

 refer to nivalis. 



CHEN CAERULESCENS (Linnaeus) 

 BLUE GOOSE 



HABITS 



The blue goose is one of the few North American birds which we 

 know onlj'^ as a migrant and a winter resident, and within the nar- 

 rowest limits. It has generally been regarded as a rare species, but 

 it is really astonishingly abundant Avithin the narrow confines of its 

 winter home on the coast of Louisiana. Its apparent rarity is due 



