THE CACKLING GOOSE. 
(0/0) 
No. 336. 
CACKLING GOOSE. 
A. O. U. No. 172¢. Branta canadensis minima Ridew. 
Synonyms.—Gray Branr.  Le&ast Canapa Goose. 
Description.—In coloration exactly like B. c. occidentalis, but much smaller ; 
tail normally 14-16 feathered. Length 23.00-25.00 (584.2-635) ; wing 13.60-14.50 
(345-4-368.3) ; bill .95-1.15 (24.1-29.2); tarsus 2.40-2.75 (61-69.9). 
Recognition Marks.—Size of Mallard; gray coloration; smallest of the 
Canada Geese. 
Nesting.—Does not breed in Washington. Nest: on the ground, of weeds 
and grasses, lined with down. Eggs: 4-9, buffy or greenish-buff. Av. size, 2.90 x 
1.95 (73-7X 49.5). Season: June-July. 
General Range.—Western North America chiefly coastwise; breeding in 
western Alaska (Yukon Delta, etc.) ; south in winter to California and irregularly 
eastward to Colorado and even the Mississippi. 
Range in Washington.—Not common winter resident and migrant on Puget 
Sound. 
Authorities.—Rhoads, Auk, X. Jan. 1903, p. 17. 
Specimens.— Proy. 
OF the Cackling Goose as a resident of Washington we know surprisingly 
little. It appears to migrate regularly to California and should occur regularly 
not only upon the Sound but in the interior of the State. Doubtless it is often 
overlooked, or lumped in with Hutchinses as “Gray Brant.’’ I have seen it but 
once, February 4, 1905, a group sitting on a floating log in Elliot Bay. 
As typical of nesting conditions in that romantic Northland toward which 
our thoughts are ever tending, I quote at length from Nelson*: 
“This is the most common and generally distributed goose found breeding 
along the Alaskan coast of Bering Sea. From the sea-shore its breeding 
ground extends along the courses of the great rivers far into the interior. 
During the summer of 1881 they were found in abundance about the head of 
Kotzebue Sound, and were seen at various points along the Arctic coast to the 
vicinity of Point Barrow; so there is no doubt that its breeding ground 
reaches thus far. 
“In the vicinity of Saint Michaels and the Yukon mouth these are the 
first geese to arrive in spring; the first come fromthe 25th to the 30th of April, 
but the main body do not arrive until from May 5 to 20, according to the 
season. The first goose of the season is hailed with delight by both natives 
and white residents, who set to work repairing their guns and make ready for 
a. E. W. Nelson, Rep. on Nat. Hist. Colls. Made in Alaska (1887), p. 86. 
