174 



GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



BLUE GOOSE {Chen cccrulescens) . 



Length. — About '25 to 28 inches. 



Adult. — Back grayish brown; head, upper part of neck and rump bluish 

 gray; wings same, shading to black at ends; flanks grayish brown; 

 feathers tipped with pale brown; tail duskj', edged with white; under 

 parts white; bill and feet purplish red. 



Young. — Like adult, except head and neck dark grayish brown; chin only 

 white. 



Range. — Eastern North America. Breeding range unknown, but proba- 

 bly interior of northern Ungava; winters from Nebraska and southern 

 Illinois south to coasts of Texas and Louisiana; rare or casual in migra- 

 tion in California, and from New Hampshire to Florida, Cuba and the 

 Bahamas , 



History. 



There is no reason to believe that this western species was 

 ever more than casual here. A young female, shot at Gloucester, 

 October 20, 1876, is now in the collection of the Boston Society 

 of Natural Historv.^ 



1 Jeffries, Wm. A.: Auk, 1889, p. 68. 



