166 BULLETIN 130, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



There is a set of 7 eggs in the collection of Herbert Massey, Esq., 

 taken for Bishop J. O. Stringer, on an island in the center of the 

 mouth of the Mackenzie River on June 20, 1896; the nest is de- 

 scribed as a depression in the ground, lined with a beautiful lot of 

 gray down; it was collected by an Eskimo, but the bird was shot 

 and the head, wings, and feet were sent with the eggs. I have a 

 set of 5 eggs in my collection from the same missionary, taken on 

 Garry Island in the mouth of the Mackenzie River on June 10, 1912. 



Eggs. — The eggs of the snow goose vary in shape from ovate to 

 elliptical ovate. The shell is thick and smoothly granulated, with a 

 slight gloss on incubated specimens. The color is dull white or 

 creamy white. They are usually much nest stained. The measure- 

 ments of 103 eggs in various collections average 78.6 by 52.3 milli- 

 meters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 88 by 55.5, 79.6 

 by 57.2, 63.2 by 42.4, and 67.8 by 41.8 millimeters. 



Plumages. — In the small downy young snow goose, recently 

 hatched, the color of the head shades from "olive buff" above to 

 " pale olive buff " below, suffused with " colonial buff " or pale yellow 

 on the throat, forehead, and cheeks; the down on the back is quite 

 glossy and appears "hair brown," "light drab," or "light grayish 

 olive" in different lights; the under parts are "pale olive buff," 

 suffused on the breast and sides with pale yellow shades. 



I have seen no specimens showing the change into the juvenile 

 plumage. In this plumage in the fall the head and neck is mottled 

 with brownish gray or dusky, faintly below, more heavily and 

 thickly above; the mantle and wing coverts, and early in the season 

 the breast are washed or finely sprinkled with grayish; the scapu- 

 lars, tertials, and secondaries are heavily sprinkled and clouded with 

 grayish ; the primaries are more grayish black and not so extensively 

 black tipped as in the adult. 



During the first winter and spring much progress is made toward 

 maturity by wear and molt. The dusky markings gradually disap- 

 pear, much of the contour plumage is molted, as well as the wing 

 coverts and tail, until by summer there is little left of the immature- 

 plumage, except a small amount of grayish mottling on the head 

 and the ju venal wings. At the complete molt that summer young 

 birds become practically indistinguishable from adults, Avhen 14 

 or 15 months old. 



Food. — The food of the snow goose is largely vegetable, in fact 

 almost wholly so, during the greater part of its sojourn in its winter 

 home. In the spring this consists largely of winter wheat and 

 other sprouting grains and grasses ; and in the fall the stubble fields 

 are favorite feeding grounds, where large flocks are known to con- 

 gregate regularly. According to Swainson and Richardson (1831) 



