BIRDS OF NEW YORK 233 



Length 25-34 inches; extent 45-50; wing 14.75-17.75; tail 5-6; tarsus 

 2.25— 3.2 ; bill 1. 2-1. 9. 



This race of the Canada goose can be distinguished with certainty only 

 by careful measurement and by counting the tail feathers. 



According to Giraud and DeKay this species was not uncommon in 

 their day at the eastern extremity of Long Island, where it was known as 

 the "Mud goose," but I can find no recent records of it in Mr Butcher's 

 Long Island notes. Mr F. T. Pember reports a specimen from Hebron, 

 Washington co., which was killed about 1880. Mr F. S. Webster states 

 that it was once taken in Rensselaer county. Mr Foster Parker has a 

 specimen in his collection killed at Cayuga about 1880, which is on the 

 border line between the dimensions of this species and the smallest for the 

 Canada goose. There is a specimen in the State Museum, killed at Gaines, 

 Orleans co., in 1888, recorded by Posson [Auk, 16:193]. Dr W. M. Beau- 

 champ in a letter to Dr Farr dated January 31st, 1900, reports a specimen 

 shot at Baldwinsville, September 13th, 1897. It is probable that this 

 subspecies is more common in western New York than these meager data 

 would indicate, but it is overlooked by the ordinary observer, being con- 

 sidered merely the young of the Canada goose. The summer home of the 

 Hutchins goose is principally along the Arctic coast from Melville peninsula 

 to the mouth of the Mackenzie and the interior of Alaska. Its winter home 

 is chiefly in California and the other southwestern states and its line of 

 migration lies almost wholly west of Hudson bay and the Mississippi river. 



Branta bemicla glaucogastra (Brehm) 

 Brant; Light-bellied Brant 



Plate 22 



Branta glaucogastra Brehm. Handbuch Vog. Deutschl. 1831. p. 849 

 Anser bernicla DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 351, fig. 239 

 Branta bernicla A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 2. 1895. No. 173 



ber'nicla, from Old Eng. bernekke, the barnacle said to be named from this bird 



glaucogas'tra, Gr. jrXauxd^, shining; Ya<n^p, belly 



Description. Head, neck and forepart of body shiny black, giving way 

 abruptly to the brownish gray of the back and the lighter ashy gray of 

 the under parts, the body feathers edged with paler; patch of white streaks 



