THE HUTCHINS GOOSE. 831 



The goose problem is all mixed up. It would be so much more couveuient 

 if the four races of B. canadensis were separated from each other by impassable 

 mountain barriers. They must raise social barriers in nesting time ; but in winter 

 they are all too friendly, each to each, in Washington. Hear what a trouble a 

 visiting ornithologist^' has with the situation: "Intergrades connect any series of 

 Washington birds of this group so completely that it is impossible to class every 

 individual by its size or coloration. Three specimens obtained from the same 

 flock may be severally referred to hiitchinsii and occidcntalis. one of them being 

 intermediate between hntchinsii and occidcntalis. and another between hiitchinsii 

 and niininm. All Canada Geese secured on my trip were secured at Nisqually 

 in April and were migrants. If ]\[r. Fannin's statements were based on authentic 

 records and specimens taken in the proper season, canadensis and hiitchinsii breed 

 in the same localities on the mainland, a state of affairs unknown east of the 

 Rockies and inconsistent with their classification as it now stands in the books. 

 The bulk of Pacific Coast specimens examined present a most puzzling constancy 

 in their intermediate size coupled with an inconstancy of coloration which makes 

 their classification by the most adjustable formula of little value." 



This much at least is plain, that the B. canadensis t}pe becomes dwarfed as 

 we proceed in a northwesterly direction. The summer aspect of the species, 

 therefore, is somewhat as follows: Branta canadensis occupies the interior of 

 British North America including eastern liritish Columbia and the northern 

 border states, including eastern Washington. B. c. occidcntalis is a darker Pacific 

 Coast form, having its center of abundance in western llritish Columbia, but 

 extending as far north as Sitka, and intergrading with C. ty[^iciis along the eastern 

 border of its range. B. c. hntchinsii. a dwarfing form, intergrades with C. tyf'icns 

 in northern British Columbia and in eastern .Vlaska, and occupies the southern 

 portion of Alaska proper and the shores of Bering Sea. B. c. minima inosculates 

 with B. c. hntchinsii along the northern borders of the latter's range, and extends 

 thence northward to the limit i)f land. Minima not onl}- dwarfs hntchinsii, but 

 exhibits the same tendency to vary from it in pattern of coloration which 

 occidcntalis does from typiciis. In plumage, therefore, canadensis proper and 

 hntchinsii form one group, and occidcntalis with minima another. But whereas 

 there is evidence of intergradation between c. and //. there is nn such evidence 

 as between 0. and ;;;. This, of course, is "caviare to the general." an<l no ofl:'ense! 

 Shun it ! 



THESE little Geese are coninmn 1 in both sides of the niduntains during 

 migration, and a few winter. Excejit in the matter of wheat-fields, which are 

 irresistible, the birds rather prefer the nuul-flats and marshes for both bed and 

 board. Because of their northern extraction, they are not so wary as the 

 more experienced Canadas, and their honking is a little lighter in character; 

 but further than this the scales and the tape must record all that is interesting 

 in Imtchinsii as over canadensis. 



a. Samuel N. Rhoads in "The Birds Observed in British Columbia and Washington During Spring 

 nd Summer 1892." Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1893, p. 34. 



