2 University of California Publications in Zoology [Vol. 12 



fifty-three skins altogether. The numbers used refer, unless otherwise 

 stated, to the collection of birds in the University of California Museum 

 of Vertebrate Zoology. 



Branta canadensis canadensis 



Of specimens referable to canadensis proper, there are in the 

 Museum collection thirty-five winter birds from Los Banos, California 

 (nos. 21944-21960, 21962-21979). and one breeding bird from Lake 

 Tahoe (no. 17224), and there were available five additional skins, one 

 from Los Angeles County (no. 588, Grinnell coll.), and four loaned 

 by the United States National Museum, from Rhode Island (no. 

 175197), North Carolina (no. 169168), District of Columbia (no. 

 70996), and Ontario (no. 223137), respectively. 



The specimens composing our series of canadensis are more uniform 

 in size, color, and markings than those of any other of the groups into 

 which the species has been separated. The conspicuous features of 

 this form are large size and pale coloration, especially of underparts, 

 associated with white cheek patches continuous across throat, and 

 absence of white half collar at base of black neck. The tarsus is 

 usually shorter than combined length of middle toe and claw. 



In the series indicated above there is but slight variation in shade 

 of gray of underparts, the winter birds from the San Joaquin Valley, 

 California, being of precisely the same hue as winter birds from the 

 East. As regards color patterns, the following unusually marked 

 birds are the only variants in the series. Three specimens (nos. 21962, 

 21949, 21952) show slight traces of a white half collar at base of neck, 

 and two (nos. 21962, 21972) have a few small black spots on center 

 line of throat, the white cheek patches being otherwise continuous with 

 one another across throat, but in no instance are these differences 

 sufficiently marked to cause hesitancy in placing the birds in the 

 canadensis category. 



Of the thirty-nine specimens in which I was able to count the 

 number of tail feathers, one had fourteen rectrices, nine had sixteen, 

 twenty-three had eighteen and six had twenty. 



Branta canadensis hutchinsi 

 The hutchinsi series at hand forms a perfect connecting link between 

 B. c. canadensis and B. c. minima, the gradation between hutchinsi 

 and minima in particular being so gradual that several specimens 

 might with equal propriety be placed in either subspecies. 



