LESSER SNOW GOOSE 211 



Distribution in California — Abundant winter visitant to the interior valleys; 

 less frequent near the seacoast. Eecorded south to San Diego (Belding, MS), 

 and southeast to the Colorado River below Needles (Grinnell, 1914b, p. 116). 

 Arrives soon after the first of October and leaves in March and early April. 



California probably surpasses any other state in the Union in the 

 number and variety of geese which winter within its borders. The 

 Avinter ranges of at least three species center within its confines, and 

 as many as five different species have been taken in a single day, in 

 1913, at Los Bailos, Merced Count5^ To many people the geese are the 

 most conspicuous examples of birds which migrate regularly with 

 the changes of the seasons. 



The Lesser Snow Goose, often called White Brant, and occasionally 

 by the Eskimo name, White "Wavy," is among the commonest of geese 

 to be seen in the Pacific region. For instance, on December 9, 1911, 

 in the vicinity of Los Baiios, Beck (MS) observed approximately 

 5,000 White-fronted Geese, 300 Canada Geese, and 50,000 white 

 (Lesser Snow and Ross) geese. On December 29 of the same year he 

 estimated that he saw 1,000 White-fronted, 100 Canada, and 50,000 

 white geese. 



In migration the Lesser Snow Goose occurs more or less abundantly 

 along the whole Pacific coast from Alaska to Lower California, but 

 during the winter months almost the entire population concentrates 

 in central and western California. These geese are most often seen 

 passing overhead in long diagonal lines or V-shaped flocks ; but on 

 open level country, such as the plains of the Sacramento-San Joaquin 

 Valley, it is not an uncommon thing, during the winter season, to see 

 the ground fairly whitened with them as they rest or feed. 



So far as we know only two species of white geese occur in Cali- 

 fornia. The Greater Snow Goose of the Atlantic coast has never been 

 recorded from this state, and specimens which were first reported as 

 instancing the occurrence of the Blue Goose here have since been 

 shown to be young of the Lesser Snow Goose (Swarth, 1913a, p. 43). 



The Lesser Snow Goose differs from the Ross Goose, the other 

 white species occurring in California, by its much larger size, longer 

 and smoother bill, and by the presence of a large black area ("grin- 

 ning patch") exposed between the two closed mandibles of the bill 

 (compare figs. 30 and 31). The voice of the Lesser Snow Goose is more 

 sonorous than that of the Ross Goose. 



Although the Lesser Snow Goose has been found breeding along 

 the Arctic coast east of the Mackenzie River, yet great numbers of 

 the birds have been seen to pass still farther north, to breeding 

 grounds as yet unknown. Nelson (1887, p. 83) states that this species 

 finds a nesting ground along the course of the lower Anderson River 

 and the neighboring region along the Arctic coast; and Raine (in 



