136 GEESE 



Blue Goose 



Chen caerulescens 



(Chen, se-ru-les-enz, or ki-ru-les-enz) 

 Colour Plate No. 4. Downy Young No. 32. 



SCIENTIFIC NAME 



Chen, Greek, meaning a goose; caerulecens, Latin, meaning bluish. 



COLLOQUIAL NAMES 



IN LOCAL USE: Alaska goose; bald brant; black wavy; blue brant; blue wavy; 

 brant; eagle-headed brant; gray brant; gray wavy; oie aigle (eagle goose) oie 

 bleue (blue goose); outlaw; silver brant; skillet-head; white-headed goose. 



DESCRIPTION 



ADULTS, BOTH SEXES. Head and neck, white, with rusty stain suffused 

 over face and cheeks, deepest in colour around base of bill; lower foreneck, dusky 



slate; bill, pink to reddish flesh, with usually a hint 

 of dark orange near nostril, nail, white or pinkish 

 white; broad, black "grinning patch" on sides of 

 closed mandibles; eye, brown to dark brown. Body. 

 Back, scapulars, chest and sides, dark greyish brown 

 'fjf to blackish, with wave-like markings of cinnamon 

 brown on edges and tips of feathers; in some speci- 



, ., mens these verrniculations are paler, approaching an 

 The breast pattern of the 



. ^ r . ashy colour; back alwavs somewhat darker than un- 



Blue Goose varies. ,. 



derparts; rump, sometimes nearly pure white, some- 

 times blue grey; breast and belly, variable, in some specimens, like back but 

 slightly lighter, in others ashy white, occasionally, immaculate white; between 

 these extremes are intermediate blended variations; flanks, white; (those birds with 

 white or whitish breasts may be found to be hybrids of the Blue Goose and the 

 Lesser Snow Goose); feet, light purplish or pinkish red, more orange in autumn 

 and winter; claws, black. (The bill and feet are indistinguishable from those of 

 the Snow Geese.) Tail greyish brown to slaty, usually broadly tipped and edged 

 with whitish; upper and under coverts, whitish, mottled with blue grey or greyish 

 brown. Wings. All coverts, greyish blue, some of the inner lesser and middle coverts 

 with black streak, the middle and greater edged with white, inner greater coverts, 

 long and plume-like, black with broad, conspicuous margins of ashy to pale buffy 

 white, varying to all white; primaries, black, greyish at base; secondaries, black, 

 some edged with greyish; tertials, brownish black, with broad, conspicuous margins 

 of ashy to pale buffy white, grey at base; lining, grey; axillars, whitish, finely speckled 

 with greyish brown. 



JUVENILE. In first autumn, very similar to adults except that head and neck, 

 uniform light brownish slate, chin, white; bill, dusky; back, dark grey, with brown- 

 ish feather-edgings; underparts, dull grey, almost whitish on belly; feet, dusky, 

 with suffusion of pinkish. Wing like that of adult, except lesser coverts occasionally 

 edged with brownish; greater coverts plain pale grey, inner, dusky, widely-margined 



