BIRDS OF KANSAS. 93 



surface. As they are not wary they are easily approached, 

 preferring to escape by diving rather than flight. They are 

 expert divers, and under the water at the flash of a gun, but 

 when they do take wing, rise slowly; an easy mark for the 

 poorest of wing shots. 



They feed upon roots, seeds, and the tender stems that shoot 

 up from the bottom, also shellfish and the various forms of life 

 found in both shallow and deep waters, and when fat are a 

 good table Duck. 



Their nests are placed in rushes, grasses or reeds, at the 

 margin of the water, and are made from the leaves of the 

 plants at hand and lined with down. A set of six eggs, taken 

 May 28th, 1886, at Santa Cruz, California, are in dimensions: 

 2.44x1.81, 2.50x1.80, 2.48x1.85, 2.48x1.80, 2.50x1.81, 2.44x 

 1.82; pale cream to buff white, with a slightly granulated sur- 

 face; in form, oval or rounded elliptical. 



SUBFAMILY ANSERINE. GEESE. 



"The chief characters of the Anserince, as distinguished from the Cygnince 

 and AnatincB, consists in the more elevated body, with the lengthened legs 

 fitting the species for a more terrestial life, although equally able to swim. 

 Their necks are very much shorter than in the Swans, and usually longer than 

 those of the Ducks. From the latter all the Geese are distinguished by the char- 

 acter of the covering of the anterior part of the tarsus, which consists of small 

 hexagonal scales, but in the Ducks of narrow transverse scutellae. Including 

 the genus Dendrocycna, which, notwithstanding its close superficial resemblance 

 to the Ducks, seems to belong rather to this subfamily." 



GENTS CHEN BOIE. 



"Bill very robust; the culmen slightly, the lower outline of the mandible 

 decidedly, convex; very slightly depressed immediately behind the thickened 

 nails; commissure widely gaping (except in C. rossi). Head and neck of adult 

 white; some species entirely white in adult dress, except primaries. Bill and 

 feet reddish in the adult." 



Chen caerulescens (LINN.). 



BLUE GOOSE. 

 PLATE VIL 



Migratory; rare. 



B. 564. R. 590. C. 694. G. 276, . U. . 



HABITAT. Interior of North America, east of the Eocky 



