GEESE 121 



169a. Chen hyperborea nivalis (Forst.). Greater Snow 



Goose. 



Plumage: not different from the corresponding plumages of the Lesser 

 Snow Goose, and distinguished only its larger size. Wing 17.00 to 17.50 ; 

 culmen 2.40 to 2.70 ; tarsus 3.20 to 3.40. 



Geog. Dist. — North America, breeding east of the Mackenzie Basin in the 

 far north and wintering from Chesapeake Bay to Cuba : rare or casual along 

 the New England coast. 



County Records. — Sagadahoc ; a female which was received in the flesh 

 by Mr. Chas. Batchelder of Cambridge, Massachusetts, was shot on Heron 

 Island at the mouth of the Kennebec River, April 7, 1890, (Batchelder, Auk 

 7, p. 284 ; also A List of Birds of Maine, p. 36) ; a male taken at Back River, 

 Georgetown, April 25, 1903, by Winfield Todd is in my collection, (Spinney). 



This species is a mere spring straggler to our coast, the two 



specimens known coming from substantially the same locality 



within a few miles. The nest, eggs and habits of these birds 



are veiled in obscurity. 



Genus BRANTA Scopoli. 



172. Branta canadensis (Linn.). Canada Goose; Wild 

 Goose. 



Plumage of adults : throat and patch on head behind the eyes white ; rest 

 of head, neck, chin, tail and upper tail coverts black ; longer and lateral tail 

 coverts, lower belly white ; sides, back and wings brownish, the feathers 

 lighter edged ; breast and belly grayish white. Immature plumage : differs 

 chiefly in that the throat and cheeks are in part black. Tail feathers eighteen 

 to twenty in number. Length from tip of bill to end of tail (to be measured 

 only in specimens in flesh) 34.00 to 40,00 ; wing 16.00 to 20.00 ; culmen 1.75 

 to 2.50 ; tarsus 2.50 to 3.50. 



Geog. Dist. — Temperate North America, breeding in many of the northern 

 states (rarely now) and in the British Provinces; wintering south to Mexico. 



County Records. — Androscoggin; common migrant, (Johnson). Cumber- 

 land; common transient, arrives in early March, — sometimes even late in 

 February, — and straggles along until the latter part of May, re-appearing 

 about the middle of October and staying until in December, (Brown, C. B. P. 

 p. 30); migrant, (Mead). Franklin ; common migrant, (Richards). Hancock ; 

 quite common in fall, common in spring, (Knight). Kennebec ; migrant, 

 (Gardiner Branch). Knox ; migrant, (Rackliff) . Oxford ; common migrant, 

 (Johnson). Penobscot; common in flocks overhead in spring and fall, 

 (Knight). Piscataquis; migrant, (Homer). Sagadahoc ; common in migra- 

 tion, (Spinney). Somerset; not common migrant, (Morrell). Waldo; 



