338 General Notes. [^^^ 



In the Mississippi delta the Blue Geese rest by day on mud flats border- 

 ing the Gulf. At the time of my visit (January 29 to Fel^ruary 4, 1910) 

 these were entirely destitute of vegetation, a condition to which the geese 

 had reduced them by their voracious feeding. Every summer these flats 

 are covered by a dense growth of " cut grass" (the local name for Zizaniop- 

 sis miliacea), "goose grass" {Scirpus robustus), "oyster grass" (Spariina 

 glabra), "Johnson grass" {Panicum repens), and cat-tails or "flag-grass" 

 {Typha angusiifolia), and every fall are denuded by the Blue Geese or 

 Brant as they are called in the delta. The birds feed principally upon the 

 roots of these plants but the tops of all are eaten at times, if not regularly. 

 Each goose works out a rounded hole in the mud, devouring all of the roots 

 discovered, and these holes are enlarged until they almost touch before 

 the birds move on. They maintain themselves in irregular rows while 

 feeding, much after the manner of certain caterpillars on leaves, and make 

 almost as clean a sweep of the area passed over. 



In the Belle Isle region the method of feeding is the same except that the 

 birds feed by day, but the places frequented are what are locally known as 

 'burns,' that is, areas of marsh burned over so that new green food will 

 sooner be available for the cattle. These pastures, for the most part, are 

 barely above water level, so that the holes dug by the geese immediately 

 fill with water. Continvied feeding in one area produces shallow, grass- 

 tufted ponds, where formerly there was unbroken pasture. Some of 

 these ponds are resorted to for roosting places, in which case the action 

 of the birds' feet further deepens them, and veritable lakes are produced, 

 which the building-up influence of vegetation cannot obliterate for genera- 

 tions, and never, in fact, while the geese continue to use them. 



The numbers of the Blue Geese are so great that these effects are not 

 local but general. At Chenjere-au-Tigre, one proprietor formerly hired 

 from two to four men at a dollar a day, furnishing them board, horses, 

 guns and ammunition, and keeping them on the move constantly in the 

 daytime to drive the geese away. The attempt was imsuccessful, how- 

 ever, and fully 2000 acres of pasture were abandoned. Other proprietors 

 had similar experience and suffered loss of the use of hundreds of acres. 



Besides Blue Geese, Canada Geese and Snow Geese are numerous. One 

 goose among about every 25 Blue Geese is white. These white birds do 

 not flock together but are always scattered among the blue and are regarded 

 by the hunters as belonging to that species. A specimen collected in the 

 delta of the Mississippi is referable to the lesser western form, Chen hyper- 

 borea. It should be recorded also that a specimen of Chen rossi was taken 

 February 23, 1910, on the shore of Little Vermillion Bay, La., near the 

 mouth of the Vermillion River. The nearest previous captures were made 

 in northern Chihuahua, Mexico, and in Colorado. 



Being so localized in their winter range, it might seem that the Blue Geese 

 are in danger of extermination. But they are so wary and so few hunters 

 molest them that at present there is no appreciable reduction in their 

 numbers by man. The same is true, I feel sure, of the winter colonies of 



