574 THE LESSER | SNOW GOOSE, 
No. 275. 
LESSER SNOW GOOSE. 
A. O. U. No. 169. Chen hyperborea ( Pall.). 
Description.—dAdu/lt: 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, erayish 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. Jmmature: Head 
and neck pale gray; back and w ings, except quills, gray, varied by mesial dusky 
and marginal w hitish, py on wing-coverts and tertiaries; remaining plumage 
white. Length about 25.00 (635.); wing 15.25 (387.4); tail 6.00 (152.4) ; bill 
1.60-2.30 (40.6-58.4) ; eee 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) ; smaller. 
Nesting.—Does not breed in Ohio. “Nest, of grasses and down on the 
ground. EAygs, 2-6, soiled whitish’ (Chapman). Ay. 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 Illinois and southern California, casually to New 
England. Northeastern Asia. 
Range in Ohio.—Rare migrant or casual. 
SOME little confusion has always existed regarding the identification 
of the Snow Geese. Just now, however, when each species has been greatly 
reduced in numbers under the discipline of the modern breech-loader, Science 
rests measurably content with four forms, the three here described, and the 
rarer, Chen rossi. One factor which has made the problem difficult from the 
first is the separate flocking of adult and immature birds. Thus the two ranks 
of the present species are said to be almost never seen together during migra- 
tions, or in the winter feeding resorts; and this same exclusiveness obtains 
largely even in summer. The birds are said to attain their majority in the 
fourth year. ; 
The flesh of the Snow Goose, especially of young birds, is held in high 
regard, and furnishes a staple article of food to the natives and traders of the 
far Northwest. Professor A. W. Butler, in his Birds of Indiana, relates an 
incident, which affords a curious link of interest between the modern hunter, 
he of the breech-loader, and the primitive “Siwash” of Alaska. “A gentle- 
man one day showed me an Alaskan bone arrow or spear point, which he said 
he had found in northern Indiana, and stated that for some time he had been 
puzzled to account for its appearance there. ‘Then he showed me the sternum 
of an Alaska Goose, possibly this species, which had been shot in northern 
Indiana, through which a similar arrow head had pierced and remained firmly 
