BLUE GOOSE 
169.1. Chen caerulescens. 28 in. 
Head and neck white, often tinged with rusty on the — 
face; underparts brownish-gray. Young birds are simi- 
lar but the head is brownish; bill and feet reddish; 
eye brown. This handsome goose is found only in the 
interior, but a few accidental birds have been taken on | 
the Atlantic and two on the Pacifie coasts. While it | 
is not an abundant species, flocks of twenty or thirty are © 
often seen in the Mississippi Valley. They are some- | 
times seen with Snow Geese, but for the most part keep | 
by themselves. On their march to their breeding grounds 
they branch off from the routes chosen by the Snow Geese, 
and turn to the eastward, breeding east of Hudson Bay, 
while the white geese are found chiefly to the westward. 
Nest.—A glass-lined depression on the ground; eggs : 
deep buff color (2.50x 1.75); June. 
Range.—Breeds in the Hudson Bay region and in 
Labrador; winters on the west coast of the Gulf of 
Mexico, migrating through the Mississippi Valley. 
