212 



GAME BIRDS OF CALIFORNIA 



Macouii and Macoiui, 1909, p. 120) records several sets of eggs col- 

 lected in Mackenzie Bay, in the middle of June, 1905, and says that 

 this goose scrapes a hole in the sand and lines it with down and 

 feathers. Eifrig (1905, p. 237) states that on Southampton Island, 

 Hudson Bay, Lesser Snow Geese were found breeding in 1904. On 

 June 22 a set of seven eggs was taken there. The nests which are six 

 to eight inches high, are on wet ground and constructed of grass and 

 moss and lined with down. The young are said to be able to fly by 

 the middle of August and to keep in separate flocks. Many indi- 

 viduals retain the grayish tinted (juvenile) plumage nearly through- 

 out the winter, thus giving rise to the belief that this species does not 

 attain its full snowy white plumage until at least the second year. 



Fig. 30. Side of bill of Lesser Snow Goose. Natural size. 



Note ''grinning patch" exposed between the bowed rims of the two 

 mandibles (compare with fig. .31). 



The Lesser Snow Goose is not averse to associating with other kinds 

 and it is not an unusual sight to see some of them mixed in with a 

 flock of "gray" geese. C. H. Townsend (1887, p. 195) records having 

 seen at Red Bluff, Tehama County, a triangle of Canada Geese headed 

 by a single Lesser Snow Goose, the two waving lines of dark forms 

 converging to a snow-white point. 



Between California and their breeding grounds Lesser Snow Geese 

 appear to take the most direct route ; they are seldom found in num- 

 bers along the coast of Alaska, but are abundant during, migration in 

 the vicinity of Fort Simpson on the Mackenzie River. Although some 

 of these geese may migrate across the northern border of the state 

 from or into Oregon, yet a great many are known to cross eastward 



