180 BULLETIN 130, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



the breeding liabits or the probable breeding range of the species 

 seems to be based on specidation or hearsay. George Barnston. 

 (1862), one of the best authorities on the geese of the Hudson Bay 

 region, saj^s that: 



According to Indian report a great breeding ground for the blue wavy is 

 the country lying in the interior of the northeast point of Labrador, Cape 

 Dudley Digges. Extensive swamps and impassible bogs pi-evail there, and 

 the geese incubate on the more solid and the driest tufts dispersed over the 

 morass, safe from the approach of man. * * * in May it frequents only 

 James Bay and the Eastmain of Labrador, and it is probably the case that its 

 hatching ground is on the northwest extremity of that peninsula and the oppo- 

 site and scarcely known coast of Hudson Straits. 



Eggs. — Hon. R. M. Barnes has kept blue geese on his estate at 

 Lacon, Illinois, for a number of years and has succeeded in raising 

 them to maturity in confinement. He says in a letter to Mr. Frederic 

 H. Kennard that the eggs of the blue goose are quite different from, 

 those of the snow goose. He describes the eggs of the snow goose as 

 " more elongated and of a slightly yellowish color," whereas the eggs 

 of the blue goose " are pyriform, of thicker diameter, shorter in. 

 proportion to their length, and have a ver}^ slight bluish cast," the 

 eggs of both appearing white at first glance; moreover, the eggs of 

 the blue goose have " more minute pit holes and apparently most of 

 these pit holes have a very small deep black center, which can only 

 be disclosed by a microscope." An egg in Mr. Kennard's collection 

 is pure white and very finely granulated. It measures 78 by 51 

 millimeters. 



The measurements of four eggs, laid by one of Mr. I^arnes's 

 birds, are 81 by 54.2, 84.6 by 56, 81.2 by 55.8, and 81 by 60.2 milli- 

 meters. The nest was lined with " the purest of white down." 



Plumages. — Mr. Barnes saj^s that the downy young of the blue 

 goose " is of a deep smoky or slaty bluish color." F. E. Blaauw, 

 who has also raised this species in captivity, describes it as "olive 

 green, darkest on the upper side and yellowish on the belly," with 

 '" a little white spot under the chin." 



In the fresh juvenile plumage of the first fall, October, the chin 

 is white, the entire head and neck are uniform bluish gray, the back 

 very dark gray, with brownish edgings, and the under parts dull 

 gray, almost whitish on the belly; the wings sliow a dull reflection 

 of the adult color pattern, the lesser coverts are more or less edged 

 or tipped with brownish, the greater wing coverts are plain pale 

 gray, the primaries and secondaries are duller and browner black 

 than in adults, and the tertials and scapulars are either plain 

 dusky brown or are less conspicuously patterned than in adult birds. 



During the first winter there is a nearly continuous molt, with a 

 gradual advance toward maturity. White feathers appear in the 



