128 Kennaed, Ferruginous Stains on Waterfowl. [April 



unstained. Adults, when they reach their winter range, may or 

 may not be discolored, while the young of the species usually arrive 

 unstained. Louisiana birds become more stained during the winter, 

 while Texas birds remain comparatively unstained. In California, 

 where the Lesser Snow Goose and Ross's Goose winter in large 

 numbers, together with various kinds of Canada Geese, in the San 

 Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys, the percentage of stained birds 

 is comparatively small. Mr. Swarth writes: "I note on our Cali- 

 fornia collected birds that this stain is most apparent on specimens 

 collected through the fall. In such birds as undergo more or less 

 of a moult during the winter or early spring, it seems to disappear 

 by April. The inference is, that it is acquired in their northern 

 home." I have never visited these valleys, but am told that the 

 birds feed among grain fields, pastures, and adjacent swamps, 

 instead of muddy sloughs, as in the Louisiana marshes. The con- 

 clusion is obvious, that these birds lose their stain because of the 

 absence in this locality of muddy, iron-bearing waters such as are 

 found in the Louisiana marshes. 



We are told by Prof. Cooke, that the breeding range of the Lesser 

 Snow Goose reaches from the mouth of the Mackenzie River east 

 to Coronation Gulf and the Melville Peninsula; and the bird has 

 since been taken on Banks Island. 1 In all this expanse of country, 

 conditions must vary greatly, and it seems reasonable to suppose 

 that those geese that moult and summer among fresh water ponds 

 remain unstained, while those birds that live about the deltas, or 

 muddy flats along the iron-bearing rivers may, after they moult, 

 acquire the stain which they bring south with them. To put it 

 more concisely, it appears that the Lesser Snow Goose may or may 

 not acquire the stain upon its northern range. Those birds that 

 do acquire it, lose it if they start moulting upon their winter range 

 in California, while those birds that winter along the marshes 

 bordering the Gulf of Mexico are apt to become more stained the 

 nearer they are to the mouth of the Mississippi River. 



Very little is known of the breeding range and habits of the 

 Greater Snow Goose. Prof. Cooke seemed to think it probable 

 that they "breed for the most part in Victoria Land," though 



1 Summary Report of the Geological Survey, Department of Mines, Canada, 1916. 



