THE LESSER SNOW GOOSE. 821 
No. 331. 
LESSER SNOW GOOSE. 
A. O. U. No. 169. Chen hyperborea ( Pall.). 
Synonym.—WHuiITE BRANT. 
Description.—Adult: Entire plumage, except the primaries and their coverts, 
pure white; head and neck often heavily tinged with rusty; primaries blackish and 
with dark shafts on exposed portions, grayish and with white shafts basally ; pri- 
mary coverts gray with dark shafts; bill short, stout, with widely gaping commis- 
sure, showing black edges of mandibles, said to be purplish red in life, drying 
dull orange, nail white; feet and legs (drying) orange-red. Jimmature: Head 
and neck pale gray; back and wings, except quills, gray, varied by mesial dusky 
and marginal whitish, notably on wing-coverts and tertiaries; remaining plumage 
white. Length about 25.00 (635); wing 16.00 (406.4); tail 6.00 (152.4); bill 
2.00-2.15 (50.8-54.6) ; tarsus 3.00 (76.2); middle toe and claw 2.30 (58.4). 
Recognition Marks.—Brant size; pure white plumage with conspicuous 
black primaries (hence not difficult to determine on the wing). 
Nesting.—Does not breed in Washington. Nest: of grasses and down on 
the ground. Eggs: 2-6, soiled whitish. Av. size, 3.13 x 2.12 (79.5 x 53.9). 
General Range.—Pacific Coast to the Mississippi Valley, breeding in Alaska ; 
south in winter to southern California and southern Illinois, casually to New 
England. Northeastern Asia. 
Range in Washington.—Not common migrant both sides of the Cascades ; 
winter resident, casually abundant, on Puget Sound. 
Authorities.—| Lewis and Clark, Hist. Ex. (1814) Ed. Biddle: Coues. Vol. 
Il. p. 190.] Anser hyperboreus, Pallas, Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX. 1858, 
Die 00m LN C&Se Kika Ey 
Specimens.—(U. of W.) Prov. BN. 
WHITE is a color of ill omen in a bird’s plumage. It should typify 
purity ; but it spells EASY MARK, instead, to the sportsman; and the sportsman 
under his various disguises has a long lead over the poet in this country. ‘The 
color is, of course, highly protective in a region of snow and ice, such as this 
bird frequents in summer. Nor is it difficult to trace its protective signifi- 
cance in the case of Pelicans which sit along the margin of some lake, like 
windrows of alkaline froth; nor in that of certain sea-birds whose white is the 
mere embodiment of storm-tossed billows. But paint a game bird white and 
put the crazy notion into his noggin of wintering in California—the case is 
quite hopeless. 
Of this bird’s occurrence in California in the Fifties, Dr. Heermann 
wrote*: “‘Frequents more especially the salt marsh districts, tho found also 
a. Rep./Pac: R. R: Sury., Vol! X.; p. 68. 
