230 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



or blotched with black; sides of namp, upper and under tail coverts and 

 crissum white; bill pink, with white nail; feet chrome yellow, the claws 

 black; iris dark brown. Young: Darker and browner; forehead dark; 

 no black blotches on belly. 



Length 27-30 inches; extent 60; wing 16-17; tail 5.5; tarsus 2.75-3; 

 bill 2-2.15. 



This bird has always been very rare in our State. Giraud mentions 

 one specimen which was shot at Babylon, L. I. Professor Linden speaks 

 of it having occurred on Chautauqua lake [see Buf. Soc. Nat. Sci. Bui. 

 4:34]. Butcher [Auk, 10:271] records three specimens from Long Island, 

 as follows: Great South bay, November 1846; Islip, March 18, 1849; 

 Montauk, March 2, 1872. Dr Braislin in the Auk, voliame 20, page 52, 

 records a specimen from Sag Harbor, October 18, 1889. This bird, I read 

 in Mr Butcher's notes, was a male in beautiful plumage and was shot by 

 Mr Byram whose dog flushed it from the rushes near his house. Mr Arthur 

 Helme reports that he saw a flock of 1 1 White-fronted geese near Miller's 

 Place April 5 th, 1883. The only specimens of this goose actually taken 

 in New York State as far as I can find are those recorded by Giraud, Butcher 

 and Braislin, consequently it must be regarded fully as rare as the Blue 

 goose. The American white-fronted goose breeds on the Arctic coast of 

 Alaska and Mackenzie region; also on the west coast of Greenland. It 

 migrates mostly west of the Mississippi river and winters chiefly in Texas 

 and Mexico and on the Pacific coast from lower California to the Puget 

 sound. 



Branta canadensis (Linnaeus) 

 Canada Goose 



Plate 22 



Anas canadensis Linnaeus. Syst. Nat. Ed. 10. 1758. 1:123 



DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 348, fig. 237 

 Branta canadensis A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 2. 1895. No. 172 



bran'ta, made from Gr. PpevOo^, some water bird ; canaden'sis, of Canada 



Description. Head and neck black with a broad white chin patch 

 extending upward on the sides of the head; general color brownish gray, 

 the feathers edged with paler; rump and tail blackish; upper tail coverts 



