80 NOTES ON THE 



have materially diminished since the population has so greatly- 

 increased, and railroad connections with all of the other States 

 have made it possible for hundreds of "crack- shots" to be on 

 their haunts the moment the law allows them to be taken. 

 Remoter sections submit them to less vernal persecutions, and 

 there the numbers remain more nearly the same as those of 

 several decades now gone. On their first arrival in any 

 section, they spend much time on the wing reconnoitering, but 

 soon become settled down to their work of eating, rather than 

 flying. I suppose that there are sections where none of 

 them ever breed, but I do not know of a county where I have 

 been in summer, and had an opportunity to consult intelligent, 

 observant residents, where I have not had good reason to 

 believe that they were breeding to some extent at least. The 

 country at large is eminently favorable to their nidification, 

 and their habits during that season protect them from obser- 

 vation, while the enforcement of the statutes by the State 

 Sportingmen's Club attend to their enforcement. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Tail of eighteen feathers; head, neck, bill and feet deep 

 black; a large triangular patch of white on the cheeks behind 

 the eyes; the two of opposite sides broadly confluent beneath, 

 but not extending to the rami of the lower jaw; a few whitish 

 feathers on the lower eyelid; upper parts brown edged with 

 paler; under parts light, with a tinge of purple-gray, some- 

 times a shade of smoky brown; edges of the feathers paler; 

 color of the body of the feathers though similar, becoming 

 deeper on the sides, tibia, axillars, and inside of the wings; 

 the gray of the belly passes gradually into white on the anal 

 region and under coverts; upper tail coverts pure white; 

 primary quills and rump are very dark blackish-brown; tail 

 feathers black. 



Length, 35; wing, 18; tarsus, 3.40; commissure, 2.10. 



Habitat, North America generally. 



BRANTA CANADENSIS HITCHINSII (Swainson & 

 Richardson). (172a). 



HUTCHINS'S GOOSE. 



It is a difficult matter to convince the casually observing 

 sportsman that there are really two varieties of the " Common 

 Wild Goose," while he will readily concede a considerable vari- 

 ation in the size of different specimens of the species. The two 

 seem to be thoroughly mingled in their autumnal migrations, 

 with an immense preponderance of the Canadas, but in spring 



