University of California Publications in Zoology [Vol. 12 



CONCLUSIONS 



In the foregoing pages several facts have been demonstrated with 

 a fair degree of certainty. First, in regard to the breeding bird of 

 California: It has been generally believed that Branta c. occidental is 

 breeds south into California ; the various books dealing with the subject 

 practically agree in this notion. In Belding's "Geese which occur in 

 California" (1892, pp. 96-101) occidentalis is explicitly designated 

 as the common goose of this group in the state, and true canadensis 

 is mentioned only as of possible occurrence, the author not having per- 

 sonally met with it. It is probable that many of the later, more gen- 

 eral, works have taken this as their authority. It also seems highly 

 probable that the idea was originally based on a misconception, Cali- 

 fornia specimens not having been actually compared with eastern ones. 



Our single summer bird, from Lake Tahoe, taken with a set of eggs 

 (see Ray, 1912, p. 70), is, as mentioned above, unquestionably canaden- 

 sis, furnishing a definite record for the subspecies within the state. 

 There is also a record (Merrill, 1888, p. 143) of the breeding of B. c. 

 canadensis at Fort Klamath, in southern Oregon, it being explicitly 

 stated that occidentalis does not occur in the region, winter or summer. 

 These two facts afford good grounds for the assertion that the goose 

 found breeding throughout the lake region of southern Oregon and 

 northeastern California is Branta e. canadensis and not B. c. occiden- 

 talis, as has been generally assumed. Moreover, this is what would 

 naturally be expected, the general faunal complexion of the region 

 being distinctly similar to that of the Great Basin, to the eastward, 

 and not at all like that of the humid northwest coast region, the home 

 of occidentalis. 



Second, regarding the alleged occurrence of occidentalis in Cali- 

 fornia during the winter- months : In our series of the canadensis 

 group of geese from the San Joaquin Valley, there are, as already 

 shown, many typical examples of B. c. canadensis, and none which 

 at all approaches B. c. occidentalis. In addition, it may be said that 

 the collector of this series obtained many of his birds from market 

 hunters, whose daily bags he had opportunities of examining, and that 

 he was constantly on the lookout for specimens illustrating every 

 variation of color and markings. That no example of occidentalis was 

 secured means that none was seen among many times the number of 

 canadensis that were actually preserved. 



