156 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



The Snow Goose is a western bird, closely re- 

 sembling the Greater Snow Goose, which is con- 

 fined mainly to eastern North America. In the 

 old days, about which the ancient liunter loves 

 to tell, great flocks of White Geese, resting upon 

 the western prairies, appeared like banks of 

 snow. The enormous numbers of the past are 

 gone, but the white birds are more or less 

 abundant still in migration in the Far West and 

 they are numerous in winter along the Pacific 

 coast of the United States. 



This bird breeds beyond the Arctic circle and 

 reappears in the United States in September. 

 The flocks like to rest on some lake at night and 

 to feed by day in the open fields. Farms where 

 they can pick up waste grain are favorites, and 

 they are destructive to young grain just sprout- 

 ing from the soil. As the migrating flocks come 

 in at night they present a beautiful and impres- 

 sive sight. They fly in a wide rank presenting 

 a curved front not so angular as the V-shaped 

 flock of the Canada Goose. Winging steadily 

 along, high and serene, their extended pinions 

 1)arely moving, their snowy forms borrowing 

 rosy tints from the sunset sky, they seek a harbor 

 of security ; but as they seem about to pass on, 

 and leave the placid lake far behind, the flock 

 lengthens, turns upward at an angle of fifty or 

 sixty degrees, and then, hanging on down-bent 

 rigid wings, floats softly down and down, drift- 



ing and still falling a thousand feet or more and 

 at the end, with a few quick flaps, dropjMng to 

 the water, and so they come to rest. Sometimes 

 when near their goal they zigzag down more like 

 a falling Canvas-back. The young are easily 

 distinguished from the adult birds by their gray- 

 ish plumage. 



The Snow Goose is difficult to approach and is 

 not highly regarded by the epicure. Were it not 

 for its taste for sprouting grain it might main- 

 tain its numbers for many years. 



Edward Howe Forbush. 



The Greater Snow Goose ( Chen hypcrborcus 

 nivalis, color plate 21 ) is similar in color to the 

 Snow Goose, but larger in size. It breeds on 

 Whale Island, in Ellesmere Land, and in North 

 ( ireenland, but its full breeding range is un- 

 known. In the winters it is found from southern 

 Illinois, Chesajjeake Bay, and Massachusetts 

 (rarely) south to Louisiana, Florida, and the 

 West Indies. Sometimes during migration it is 

 seen west to Colorado and east to New England 

 and Newfoundland. 



Audubon said he found this Goose in fall and 

 winter in every part of the United States that he 

 visited and other early writers record great flocks 

 on the Atlantic coast. Its numbers have been 

 greatly reduced ; this is probably due not only to 

 its conspicuousness, but also to the superior 

 flavor of its flesh. 



BLUE GOOSE 



Chen caerulescens ( Liiuuciis) 



A. O. U. Number 169. i See Color I'late 21 



Other Names. — Blue-winged Goose ; Blue Wavey ; 

 Blue Brant: Blue Snow Goose; White-lieaded 

 Goose: Bald-headed Brant; White-headed Bald Brant; 

 Brant. 



General Description. — Length, 28 inches. Head, 

 white; body. .gray. Bill, short and high at base. 



Color. — Adults: Head and upper neck, white: face 

 stained with rusty: neck below, back, and breast, 

 dusky-gray fading into whitish below, into fine bluish- 

 gray on it'int/s, and into whitish on rump and upper 

 tail-coverts, broadly-barred across the back and on 

 sides with dusky-gray : wing-coverts, pale grayish- 

 brown ; most of secondaries, dusky edged with gray; 



primaries, black; bill and feet, pinkish-red; cutting 

 fd.ges of bill, black and tip white; iris, dark brown. 

 Young; General color, brownish, streaked on side of 

 neck and barred on back with pale gray ; under tail- 

 coverts whitish ; wing as in adults ; bill and feet, dusky 

 flesh color ; iris, brown. 



Nest and Eggs. — Unknown. 



Distribution. — Eastern North America ; breeding 

 range unknown, but probably interior of northern 

 Ungava : winters from Nebraska and southern Illinois 

 south to coasts of Texas and Louisiana; rare or casual 

 in migration in California, and from New Hampshire 

 to Florida, Cuba, and the Bahamas. 



Until within a very few years the Blue Goose in 1909-10, I was astonished to find that the 

 was generally considered a rare species. In a immense concourses of Geese, by scores of thou- 

 winter trip to the delta of the Mississippi River, sands, which were said to be " Brants," were in 



