BIRDS OF KANSAS. 95 



Chen hyperborea (Pall.). 



LESSER SNOW GOOSE. 

 PLATE VII. 



Abundant in migration. A few occasionally linger into win- 

 ter. Arrive early in March. 



B. . R. 591a. C. G96. G. 277, 42. U. 169. 



Habitat. AVestern North America, east to the Mississippi 

 valley, south in winter to the Gulf coast, Lower California and 

 northeastern Asia; breeding in high northern latitudes. 



Sp. Char. '■'■Adult: Entire plumage, except the piMmaries, snow white; 

 the head sometimes stained with orange rufous anteriorly; primaries deep 

 black, fadiug basally into grayish, the primary coverts and alula being hoary 

 ash. Bill purplish red, the nail whitish, and the intertomial space black; iris 

 dark brown; eyelids whitish; feet purple or orange red, the soles dingy yellow- 

 ish. Young: Above, including the head and neck, pale cinereous, the feathers 

 of the dorsal region more whitish on the edges; wing coverts and tertials dark 

 cinereous centrally, the edges broadly pure white; secondaries mottled cinere- 

 ous, skirted with white; primaries as in the adult. Rump, upper tail coverts, 

 tail and lower parts immaculate snowy white, the tail and breast tinged with 

 pale ash. Head usually more or less tinged with orange rufous, this deepest 

 anteriorly. Bill and feet dusky." 



These birds are abundant from the Pacific to central Kansas; 

 from there eastward decrease rapidly in numbers. They win- 

 ter, in large flocks, upon the prairies of southern California and 

 along the Gulf coast in Texas. In the fall and early spring I 

 have seen thousands upon thousands in the Arkansas valley, in 

 Kansas, feeding upon the growing winter wheat, doing great 

 damage to the same, plucking the tender blades with a sudden 

 jerk (the same as our tame Geese nip the grasses) that pulls it 

 up when not firmly rooted. Its flesh is dark, and I do not con- 

 sider it a very good table bird. In flight they are noisy, and 

 when going any distance have a leader and fly in the form of 

 aV. 



Their nesting habits are but little known. All the descrip- 

 tions that I can find were written before the more eastern bird, 

 the Greater Snow Goose, was separated and treated as a vari- 

 ety, and I am, therefore, unable to give its eastern breeding 



