226 BULLETIN 130, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



and the present species, have almost precisely the same habits and the same 

 food during their stay with us, and associate so intimately together that 

 many, if not most, of the flocks contain representatives of all three. At 

 least, after considerable study of the geese in Arizona and southern California, 

 I have been unable to recognize any notable differences in choice of feeding 

 grounds. 



The following extract on Hutchins goose, from Doctor Heermann's report, 

 will be found interesting : " While hunting during a space of two months in 

 the Suisun Valley I observed them, with other species of geese, at dawn, 

 high in the air, winging their way toward the prairies and hilly slopes, where 

 the tender young wild oats and grapes offer a tempting pasturage. Their 

 early flight lasted about two hours, and as far as the eye could reach the sky 

 was spotted with flock after flock, closely following in each other's wake, 

 till it seemed as though all the geese of California had given rendezvous at 

 this particular point. Between 10 and 11 o'clock they would leave the 

 prairies, first in small squads, then in large masses, settling in the marshes 

 and collecting around the ponds and sloughs, thickly edged with heavy reeds. 

 Here, swimming in the water, bathing and pluming themselves, they keep up 

 a continual but not unmusical clatter. This proves the most propitious time 

 of the day for the hunter, who, under cover of the tall reeds and guided by 

 their continual cackling, approaches closely enough to deal havoc among 

 thena. Discharging one load as they sit on the water and another as they 

 rise, I have seen 23 geese gathered from two shots, while many more, wounded 

 and maimed, fluttered away and were lost. About 1 o'clock they leave the 

 marshes and return to feed on the prairies, flying low, and affording the 

 sportsman again an opportunity to stop their career. In the afternoon, about 

 5 o'clock, they finally leave the prairies, and, rising high up in the air, wend 

 their way to the roosting places whence they came in the morning. These 

 were often at a great distance, as I have followed them in their evening 

 flight until they were lost to view. Many, however, roost in the marshes. 

 Our boat, sailing one night down the sloughs leading to Suisun Bay, having 

 come among them, the noise they made as they rose in advance of us, emit- 

 ting their cry of alarm (their disordered masses being so serried that we could 

 hear their pinions strike each other as they flew), impressed us with the idea 

 that we must have disturbed thousands. Such are the habits of the geese 

 during the winter. Toward spring they separate into small flocks and gradu- 

 ally disappear from the country, some few only remaining, probably crippled 

 and unable to follow the more vigorous in their northern migration." 



f DISTRIBUTION 



Breeding ranffe. — Barren grounds of North America. East to 

 southern Baffin Land. South to Southampton Island, west coast of 

 Hudson B&y (Cape Fullerton and Churchill), northern Mackenzie 

 (Fort Anderson and Fort Good Hope) and northern Alaska (north- 

 ern coast and south to Kowak River), Said to breed on the Bering 

 Sea coast of Alaska and on the Aleutian Islands, but such reports 

 need confirmation; it may, however, breed on the extreme vi^estern 

 Aleutians (Agattu Island) as it is reported as breeding on the Com- 

 mander and Kurile Islands. North to Victoria Land (Cambridge 

 Bay) and Boothia Peninsula (Felix Harbor). Intergrades with 

 minima in Alaska and with canadensis in northern Canada. 



