1913] Swarth: Geese of California 9 



In this connection it may also be said that the present writer had 

 occasion at one time, during the winter of 1903-1904, to examine 

 several times a week the geese received by various Los Angeles dealers, 

 and although canadensis, hutchinsi, and minima were seen in about 

 the same proportional numbers as in the series of San Joaquin Valley 

 birds under discussion, not a single specimen of occidentalis was ever 

 discovered. 



A critical examination of the literature wherein the white-cheeked 

 goose has been ascribed to California, fails to reveal any definite or 

 substantial basis for the statement. The following citations are taken 

 from Mr. Grinnell's manuscript list of the birds of California, and 

 refer to the subspecies Branta canadensis occidentalis as occurring in 

 this state : 



American Ornithologists' Union Cheek-List (1886, p. 127); Ridgway (1887, 

 p. 117); Belding (1892, p. 100); American Ornithologists' Union Check-List, 

 second edition (1895, p. 63); Grinnell (1902, p. 21); Bailey (1902, p. 68); Fisher 

 (1906, p. 194); Cooke (1906, p. 78); Sheldon (1907, p. 187); American Ornithol- 

 ogists' Union Check-List, third edition (1910, p. 86); and Salvadori (1895, p. 

 115, as Branta occidentalis). 



With one exception none of the writers named offers any 

 explanation or justification for the application of the name occidentalis 

 to the species treated. Belding. in his "Geese which occur in Cali- 

 fornia." explicitly applied the name to the large California goose. 

 He did not include true canadensis as occurring in the state, however, 

 and apparently relied upon his memory in deciding that the birds 

 seen were different from eastern ones. Thus he recognized but one 

 large form of Canada goose within the state, calling it occidentalis, 

 but without making any comparison with eastern material. We agree 

 with him in so far that we also have detected but one of the two forms, 

 but, on making careful comparison of Californian and eastern skins, 

 have discovered no differences; hence we use the name canadensis for 

 the California bird. 



Thus it seems safe to assert that the oft-repeated statement regard- 

 ing the occurrence of the white-cheeked goose in California has no basis 

 in fact, or at any rate rests on no authenticated published record. 



Third, as regards the status of the breeding goose of southeastern 

 Alaska : In reports upon collections of birds from the region, made for 

 this Museum, the name occidentalis was employed with some hesitancy 

 (see Grinnell. 1909, p. 199; 1910, p. 373; Swarth, 1911, p. 47). This 

 was principally because the birds secured did not show the definite 



