74 NOTES ON THE 
during one day’s observation, I arrived at the conclusion that 
within an area of five miles in diameter, we saw not less than 
5,000 Snow Geese, without having recounted any flocks, as they 
confined themselves through the bright, sunny day to the same 
bodies of water, as a consequence of which, not a White Goose 
was killed, by any of us during the day. The hunters call 
them White Brant. The sight of one of those animate clouds 
of floating snow on which the dazzling rays of the sun are 
pouring on a bright October day, can be neither described nor 
forgotten. The Snow Geese make but a comparatively short 
stay in this latitude in the spring, but seek those most northern 
by the 15th to the 20th of April generally. The measures of 
all which I have obtained, and found in the markets, have 
placed them within the lesser species as recognized by the 
Check List of the American Ornithological Union, not one in 
ten exceeding twenty-seven inches in length, with the wing 
sixteen. The Blue Goose, about which there has been some 
controversy, and which it has been my good fortune to secure 
several times, is beyond a doubt in my own mind, the young of 
the species under consideration, the measures essentially 
agreeing with theirs. 
When speaking of them in his reports from Mille Lacs, and 
Crow Wing, Mr. Washburn says: ‘:Very abundant on the 
prairies west and south of Fergus Falls.’ And again speaks 
of ‘‘Chen coerulescens, Blue Goose,” as being often killed dur- 
ing the open season near the same place. 
Mr. Herrick found ‘‘immense numbers of the Snow Geese at 
Lake Shatek, the source of the Des Moines river.” I might 
add other reports from Waseca, Big Stone, Kandiyohi, White 
Bear, and other localities, without increasing the measure of 
knowledge of the species. They are exceedingly wary, and 
hard to get. Their food in the autumn consists largely of wild 
rice with several species of berries. However, earlier they 
depend upon aquatic and marsh vegetation, including some 
snails and insects. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Bill and legs, red; color pure white; primary quills black 
towards the end, silvery bluish-gray towards the base where 
the shafts are white; spurious quills also bluish; inside of 
wings except the primary quills, white. 
Length, 27; wing, 16; tarsus, 8; commissure, 2. 
Habitat, North America. 
