THE CANADA GOOSE. 483 



The American geese, with black bill and legs, exhibit very great variations in 

 size ; so much so, indeed, as to render it very difficult to distinguish them by this 

 character alone : the variation hi the shade of plumage in the same species is like- 

 wise considerable. 



BEENICLA CANADENSIS. Boie. 

 The Canada Goose. 



Anas Canadensis, Linnaeus. Syst. Nat., I. (1766) 198. Wils. Am. Orn., VIII. 

 (1814) 52. 



Anser Canadensis, Nuttall. Man., II. 349. Aud. Orn. Biog., III. (1835) 1; 



V. 607. 76., Birds Am., VI. (1843) 178. 



Bernicla Canadensis, Boie. Isis (1826) 921. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Tail of eighteen feathers; head, neck, bill, and feet, deep-blacu.; a large trian- 

 gular patch of white on the cheeks behind the eye; the two of opposite sides 

 broadly confluent beneath, but not extending to the rami of lower jaw; a few 

 whitish feathers on lower eyelid; upper parts brown, edged with paler; under 

 parts light, with a tinge of purple-gray, sometimes a shade of smoky-brown; the 

 edges of the feathers paler; the color of the body of the feathers, though similar, 

 becoming deeper on the sides, tibia, axillars, and inside of wings ; the gray of the 

 belly passes gradually into white on the anal region and under coverts ; the upper 

 tail coverts are pure-white; the primary quills and rump are very dark blackish- 

 brown; the tail feathers are black; iris chestnut-brown. 



Length, thirty-five inches; wing, eighteen; tarsus, three and ten one-hundredths; 

 commissure, two and ten one-hundredths inches. 



This well-known bird passes through or over New Eng- 

 land in the spring and autumn migrations, appearing in the 

 former about the first week in April, and passing in flocks 

 until the 10th of that month. In the autumn, it returns as 

 early as the last week in September ; and from then until 

 the first of December, and even later, it passes in flocks in 

 its southern migrations. The Wild Goose, as the rule, 

 breeds in the most northern portions of the continent : it 

 sometimes passes the season of incubation in the limits of 

 the United States ; but the occurrences are very few of its 

 having been found to remain in New England. I under- 

 stand that it has bred on Martha's Vineyard, south of 

 Massachusetts, several times ; and I have been told of other 

 instances, but do not consider them to be well authenti- 

 cated. The nest is located in some retired place not far 

 from the water, generally among the thickest grass, and not 



