LESSER SNOW GOOSE. 



npHIS bird, the smaller of the two Snow Geese, is the 

 ^ western representative form, ranging from the Arc- 

 tic Sea, south in winter to the Gulf of Mexico and 

 Southern California. It does not breed south of the 

 Arctic circle, and during its migrations makes no tarry- 

 ing in Alaska, stopping but a brief period to rest and 

 feed on the marshes, and then continuing its jour- 

 ney northward. The flocks arrive on the Yukon from 

 the beginning to the middle of May, and are more nu- 

 merous in spring than in the autumn, when they return 

 re-enforced in numbers by their young families. None 

 pass the winter in any part of Alaska, and the species 

 does not seem to visit the Aleutian Islands at any time. 

 On their return journey when they appear in the United 

 States, about the beginning of September, they come in 

 flocks numbering sometimes over one hundred individu- 

 als, but are not seen upon the coast, performing their 

 migrations apparently over the land. 



In Washington and Oregon and throughout California 

 this Snow Goose is very common in winter, and fre- 

 quents the plains and marshes near the sea. It arrives 

 in October, and remains until March, and like the 

 larger species is shy and watchful. In the interior of the 

 Continent and along the Mississippi Valley it is a regu- 

 lar migrant, and is quite abundant. It arrives there 

 about the same time as the members of the western army 

 do on the Pacific coast, from the beginning to the mid- 

 dle of October, flying very high in a long, extended 



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