74 NOTES ON THE 



during one day's observation, I arrived at the conclusion that 

 within an area of five miles in diameter, we saw not less than 

 5,000 Snow Geese, without having recounted any flocks, as they 

 confined themselves through the bright, sunny day to the same 

 bodies of water, as a consequence of which, not a White Goose 

 was killed, by any of us during the day. The hunters call 

 them White Brant. The sight of one of those animate clouds 

 of floating snow on which the dazzling rays of the sun are 

 pouring on a bright October day, can be neither described nor 

 forgotten. The Snow Geese make but a comparatively short 

 stay in this latitude in the spring, bu-t seek those most northern 

 by the loth to the 20th of April generally. The measures of 

 all which I have obtained, and found in the markets, have 

 placed them within the lesser species as recognized by the 

 Check List of the American Ornithological Union, not one in 

 ten exceeding twenty-seven inches in length, with the wing 

 sixteen. The Blue Goose, about which there has been some 

 controversy, and which it has been my good fortune to secure 

 several times, is beyond a doubt in my own mind, the young of 

 the species under consideration, the measures essentially 

 agreeing with theirs. 



When speaking of them in his reports from Mille Lacs, and 

 Crow Wing, Mr. Washburn says: "Very abundant on the 

 prairies west and south of Fergus Falls." And again speaks 

 of "Chen coerulescens, Blue Goose,'" as being often killed dur- 

 ing the open season near the same place. 



Mr. Herrick found "immense numbers of the Snow Geese at 

 Lake Shatek, the source of the Des Moines river." I might 

 add other reports from Waseca, Big Stone, Kandiyohi, White 

 Bear, and other localities, without increasing the measure of 

 knowledge of the species. They are exceedingly wary, and 

 hard to get. Their food in the autumn consists largely of wild 

 rice with several species of berries. However, earlier they 

 depend upon aquatic and marsh vegetation, including some 

 snails and insects. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Bill and legs, red; color pure white; primary quills black 

 towards the end, silvery bluish-graj' towards the base where 

 the shafts are white; spurious quills also bluish; inside of 

 wings except the primary quills, white. 



Length, 27; wing, 16; tarsus, 3; commissure, 2. 



Habitat, North America. 



