HUTCHINS GOOSE 231 



found in very largo numbers in the marshes of the great central valley 

 of California, as for example at Los Banos, Merced County ; and it 

 also occurs abundantly about certain of the lakes of high elevation 

 such as Lower Klamath Lake (Ferry, 1908, p. 39). 



The Hutchins Goose is simply a slightly smaller "edition" of the 

 Canada Goose, and the field marks of the latter species, except for 

 size and weight, will apply equally well to the subject of the present 

 account. A Hutchins Goose measures about six inches less in total 

 length than a Canada Goose and weighs only about half as much. In 

 hand the bill is found to measure 1.37 to 1.80 inches, and the almost 

 equal lengths of tarsus and middle toe with claw also characterize the 

 present race. The Cackling Goose is still smaller than the Hutchins, 

 but has the same general color pattern. Occasional individual birds 

 are found which cannot be satisfactorily classified with any of these 

 three races (see figs. 32-37). 



Despite the fact tliat the Hutchins Goose nests over a wide extent 

 of territory, from northwestern Alaska east to Hudson Bay, little has 

 been published concerning its breeding habits. Nests are usually 

 placed on the ground, in slight liollows lined with leaves, grasses and 

 down. Of fifty nests found by MacFarlane (1891, p. 424) on the Lower 

 Anderson River, Arctic Canada, all but one were on the ground and 

 were composed of "hay, feathers, and down." The exception was 

 where a female had deposited her four eggs and was incubating them 

 in an old crow or hawk's nest nine feet above the ground in a pine tree. 

 In the other nests six was the usual complement of eggs. In Alaska 

 these geese sometimes choose hill tops for nest sites, but most generally 

 sandj^ beaches and grassy situations near fresh-water lakes are chosen. 

 Eggs were taken by Dall on June 15 and downy young on July 10 

 (Nelson, 1887, p. 85). MacFarlane secured eggs on June 10 and June 

 14, 1864-65 (Cooke, 1906, p. 78). 



Grinnell (1900, p. 18) found this a common goose in the Kowak 

 Valley, Alaska, but did not see it along the seacoast. In the fall, 

 flocks were to be found on the same feeding grounds as the White- 

 fronted Goose, but companies of the two species did not intermingle. 

 In the spring they had become very numerous by the latter part of May 

 and had spread out in pairs among the tundra lakes. The natives of 

 the Kowak Valley have a method of trapping geese, which is surer than 

 shooting. Inconspicuous fences of willow saplings are built across a 

 mud-flat known to be a favorite resort of the birds. Gaps are left in 

 these fences and in these openings ordinary steel traps are set. 

 Heermann (1859, p. 67) sa^'s of this species in California : 



Whilst hunting during a space of two months in Suisun Valley, I observed 

 them, with other species of geese, at dawn, high in the air, winging their way 



