WATER BIRDS. Ill 



GEESE. 



KEY TO SPECIES. 



A. Head and part of neck pure white. B, BB. 



B. Wing-tips (primaries) black, rest of plumage pure white. Snow 



Goose (adult). No. 58. 

 BB. Wing-tips not black, most of plumage grayish brown, wing- 

 coverts bluish-gray. Blue- winged Goose (adult). No. 59. 

 AA. Head and neck mainly black. C, CC. 



C. A white "cravat" extending across upper throat from cheek to 



cheek. Canada Goose and Hutchins' Goose. Nos. 61, 62, 

 CC. No white cravat, but sides of neck spotted with white. Brant. 

 No. 63. 

 AAA. Head and neck mainly brownish or grayish. D, DD. 



D. Face (i. e. forehead and feathers about base of bill) white; breast 



or belly usually with black patches. White-fronted Goose 

 (adult). No. 60. 

 DD. Head without white. E, EE, EEE. 



E. Rump white (general plumage grayish). Snow Goose 



(immature). No. 58. 

 EE. Rump slaty brown. White-fronted Goose (immature). 



No. 60. 

 EEE. Rump grayish. Blue-winged Goose (immature). No. 



59. 



58. Lesser Snow Goose. Chen hyperboreus hyperboreus {Pall.). (169) 



Synonyms : Snow Goose, Common Snow Goose, White Brant, Wavey, Common Wavey. 

 — .\nser hyperboreus, Pallas, 1769, Nutt., Aud., Baird and others. — Anas hyperboreus, 

 Gm., Wils.— Chen albatus, Elliot, 1869.— Chen hyperboreus, Boie, 1822, Ridgw., 18S1, 

 Coues, 1882. — Chen hyperboreus albatus, Ridgw., 1880. 



Plate IV. 



The adult at a little distance appears to be snow-white all over; in reality 

 it is so except for the outer wing feathers (primaries), which are black, 

 and the bill and feet, which are dull red. The young are grayish all over, 

 more or less striped with dusky above. 



Distribution. — Pacific coast to the Mississippi Valley, breeding in Alaska, 

 and probably the entire Hudson Bay region; south in winter to southern 

 Illinois and southern California; casually to New England. 



The Lesser Snow Goose is with difficulty separable from its sub-species 

 the Greater Snow Goose (nivalis), both of which have been reported from 

 Michigan and other parts of the Great Lake region repeatedly. The adults 

 of both are almost precisely alike in everything except size. The present 

 species, the Lesser Snow Goose, averages decidedly smaller than the sub- 

 species nivalis, and in addition the bill in the latter bird is said to be "con- 

 stantly longer and relatively more slender than that of the western bird, 

 hyperboreus" (Bishop). The geographical range of the two species is 

 widely different, for, according to Dr. L. B. Bishop, the Greater Snow Goose 

 breeds only in Eastern Greenland and is confined chiefly in winter to the 



